A City of Heroes
by doom92
Summary: In a city where one hero isn't enough; watch and see how each interacts with one another. Pain, responsibility, sacrifice,love, and life is their world. See if they can combat the evil that looms ahead and find what it truly means to be a hero.
1. This Is Our Life

A City of Heroes

**A City of Heroes**

I do not own anything a part of Marvel, Naruto, or anything else for that matter. I'm basically just here to write and entertain as all the other authors do so well at. Just a little side note, my story Warhammer: Changing of the Guard is not retconned, I'm just exploring other possible story ideas. I'll work on that when I feel the Warhammer vibe kicking back into me, but until then have fun reading this story and review for whatever you feel necessary.

**This Is Our Life**

Superheroes huh? I don't see anything super about us. What they call "gifts" is our stigma that keeps us in hiding. My "gift" is the entire reason I was kicked out of every orphanage I was sent to. It was because they did not understand, they cannot understand….They will never see, the way I do.

I never knew my parents, never really cared until my appearance on the hero stage. It ate away at me to think that even when an entire city's worth population adores you, you still feel lonely. It's because even though they know me, at the same time they really don't **know **me. How can they? According to the hero code you're never supposed to reveal your identity. Those few who do know me are my tormentors from my childhood, and they'll never acknowledge me the way I would want people to. It's such a lonely life.

The way I look at it my life is ending one minute at a time, and I ask myself would it really matter if I died right now. Would they mourn me or look to the other hypocrites flying around in this city. I am just one little piece in this cluster-fuck of a city called Tokyo; an insignificant hero without a cause. The reality of it all is that my Great Depression is my own life; my Great War is within myself. I am the epitome of what a tragic hero should be.

But yet I continue…..

Why you may ask, and the fact is I really don't know. Do I feel some sort of inclination to protect those who don't deserve the light of day? What we really are doing is creating a supply and demand service to them. Whenever they want us, whatever it is we're there. Well I for one am tired, but yet I'm unwilling to stop. Despite it all it's for those few faint rays of hope I see that I protect and serve, for all those shining lights in the Tokyo underground. Far be from me to let all the vices in society snuff out those too innocent to understand, too weak to protect themselves. I am their shield and I constantly get beat for it. Maybe I like the abuse because it makes me feel something, I don't know.

This "life" isn't meant for the faint of heart, and right now I'm thinking if it's the life I want. Regardless I will be there when you are hurt, panicked, threatened, or abused.

My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I am Tokyo's FireFox. My tale is not unlike the rest of the supers hangin' around this city. Basically what we do day in and day out is just a way of life. A way of life that some of us never even asked to be a part of, but I will fight. I will fight until there's nothing left in me. I am not one to give up or one to accept failure. If one thing is for certain, it's that I will always be here for you, for everyone. You can sure as hell believe that.


	2. Working Class Hero Is All We Need

I do not own Marvel, Fight Club, Naruto, or anything else in this story.

**Working Class Hero Is All We Need.**

The lights of Tokyo shown brightly and lit up the night sky with signs advertising fashion, food, and business drawing people closer to the light. The lights acted as beacons drawing moths closer to its flame, and that's what the people were, moths; little insignificant insects squandering in their own ignorance.

Of course the city of Tokyo is a beautiful place in its own right, but like many other things it holds a dark side. The darkness that Tokyo harbors is the connected slums and back-alleys that make up the Underground; a place bereft of any sort of control or happiness. It is here that people live hardest in Tokyo, and it's also the place where the crime rate seems to be always out of control. It didn't matter how much money politicians put into it, or how much supers did to contain the violence, it just always seemed to rear its ugly head. It is because of this fact that politicians have given up on the Underground, calling it an uncontrollable "wasteland" and that it was a project best left with the heroes. Sadly this was a way for the Tokyo officials to sweep the problem under the carpet and let the Emperor Tokugawa believe that the problem has been solved, or at least contained. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister Sarutobi knows exactly the situation in the Underground.

Now, the Prime Minister Sarutobi is an aging man, but carries out problems as if he were a military general. His favorite saying is "A good strategist never leaves anything out of consideration" and it is with that mentality that he has gone through every possibility in routing crime in the Underground. Despite the many calls and meetings with the various supers in the city, all talks have fallen on deaf ears. For whatever reason there seems to be and for all the heroes about the city, apparently the Underground is just too big a task to take on. But for all its worth, the people living within the Underground seem to be content with the way things are; being able to live in a hostile environment allowed the people to protect themselves in their own way without question from the government.

However recently crime rates have dropped and the Prime Minister is quite baffled by the sudden control. The Yakuza henchmen that his son, chief of police Asuma Sarutobi, has been taking in all have been saying that there was a new super in town and that this one is not as viable to play by the rules as his contemporaries. Regardless if they dropped any names or not, Prime Minister Sarutobi knew who it was that was causing the drop in crime in the Underground. He just hoped that this time a new fire would be burning instead of carrying the old hatred it had burned with before.

Tonight however was not bogged down with thoughts and worries about the corruption the Underground held, but was a night meant for charm, elegance, and beauty. Tonight was the 45th annual Rising Sun Awards, a popular awards ceremony in Japan which attracted all the influential people in Japan in the year 2007. Everyone from politicians to celebrities was there to pay homage to the awards, and it was because of this that security was tightened around the city. None of the taint from the Underground would creep its way to defile the moment, for chief of police Asuma Sarutobi made sure of it.

Cars were all pulling up toward the expensive hotel rented out for the awards that night. Many stars and celebrities exited the cars, each of them posing for pictures and photographs on the way inside. Then the attention of the crowd was averted toward a large limousine that brandished a red and white fan on the side. Everyone knew who it was, and waited for this year's Man of the Year to step out.

(Inside the limo)

"I do hope **you **will be the one going up and receiving the award this time." said a long-haired man to his companion sitting across from him, a drink in his hand.

"Please Orochimaru these award ceremonies are all the same." Sasuke Uchiha said with taking a sip from his scotch.

"No they are not, especially not this one. Hundreds of important people are here and they expect to see you, and not mentioning the millions watching on TV. Now, the Prime Minister Sarutobi is presenting the award, and so what, may I ask, kind of message will you send if you don't go up and receive it?"

Sasuke didn't even respond to the man's question which made Orochimaru all the more perturbed. Orochimaru gave a defeated look and glanced over to the women sitting in the back of the limousine. She was nonchalantly looking out the window and not even paying attention to the conversation being spoken.

"Have anything that you might want to say Ms. Haruno?" Asked Orochimaru wanting to see what the Uchiha's secretary was thinking about.

"I think it's time we head out of the limo, the people seem to be getting anxious." Ms. Haruno said in "as-a matter-of-factly" sort of tone. When Orochimaru looked out and saw they were already at their destination, he motioned for Sasuke to get ready. As soon as he did this the limo door opened

"Alright show time everyone." And with that Sasuke drained the last bit of scotch and proceeded to head out the door. This was nothing knew to him, and certainly not his greatest moment. It was basically another night, with more pictures taken of him, more interviews, and more attention. This was the life of Sasuke Uchiha, the Iron Liger of Tokyo, and he didn't mind one bit.

(Outside the limo)

"Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Japan's Rising Sun Award Ceremony. I am Ino Yamanaka from JTV bringing you live coverage of all those appearing here tonight. From the hottest celebrities to the most dignified of politicians, you'll be given a front-row seat of the action with me on the red carpet."

Just then a loud uproar could be heard from the crowd which prompted the reporter to turn around. As she was looking she finally found the reason for all the commotion.

"Well speaking of hot celebrities, why don't we go and meet with Sasuke Uchiha or should I say Iron Liger?"

Ino walked through the crowd to get toward Sasuke who was making his way toward the Koganeiro Hotel. As she walked towards him she couldn't help but blush upon getting so close to the hottest bachelor in Japan. However, she wasn't one prone to lose her cool, even if it did mean standing next to the hottest guy she had ever seen.

Sasuke however did not see Ino walking up behind him and continued taking pictures with Sakura and Orochimaru beside him.

"Sakura don't you think your standing a little too close to me?" Sasuke said with a smile posing for the snap-shots.

"What are talking about?" Replied Sakura a little disgusted that he felt like they were too close. It wasn't because she felt hurt; it's just that she didn't see the harm in where she was standing.

"Well it's just that we don't wanna' give the media any misconception that we're a couple now do we?"

"Oh please Sasuke I'm just standing here!"

"Well with that dress on and you standing **this **close to me may be sending up signals. Besides where did you get that dress anyway?"

"You gave it to me for my birthday, remember?"

"Really, I didn't think I'd pick something out that made you look so….so…"

"So like what, huh?" Sakura asked with a little anger in her voice; Orochimaru could tell this was getting a little tense.

"Do you want me to say it?" asked Sasuke still smiling and waving to the crowd.

"Yea I do?!" Sakura said now turning to face Sasuke; Orochimaru had a bad feeling where this was going.

"Alright, okay, you look kind of…whore-ish." Of course you could imagine what this might've done for Sakura's temper.

"Why you son of biffmm…" Suddenly a hand found itself over Sakura's mouth, preventing whatever she was going to say to herself.

"Well folks that's enough pictures for now. Remember, we do implore you not to post anything on the internet or any personal websites if they are not authorized, thank you." Orochimaru then led a fuming Sakura and Sasuke towards the entrance into the ceremony.

They had almost made it until…

"Excuse me Mr. Uchiha, but would you mind giving JTV a little alone time with Tokyo's top hero?" Ino said as she sidled up alongside the trio.

"Of course" said Sasuke "and I also wouldn't mind getting some alone time with you later." This made Ino blush but she continued.

"So, how does it feel to be the most popular super-hero in all of Tokyo?"

"Well I'm probably not the most popular, but I am very well-known aren't I."

"Why do you feel like it is not a threat to reveal your identity to all your enemies?"

"I think it's nice to give the bad guys a break once in a while, saves them a lot of time in finding out who you are."

"Well you certainly didn't give madman Deidara a break when you fought him last week."

"Listen Ms….?"

"Yamanaka, Ino Yamanaka."

"Ms. Yamanaka there is no reason to give any of these people Like Deidara a chance. I mean I'm sure he's got a lot of emotional problems or….whatever…but that is no reason to make bombs now is it? If you've got all that pent up frustration why don't you cut off your ear like Da Vinci?"

"That was Van Gogh." Said Sakura as she managed to get out of Orochimaru's grasp.

"Whatever, the fact of the matter is that even though Van Gogh went through all that pain in his life, he turned out just fine in the end."

"Actually he committed suicide and died a poor man without selling a single painting." said Sakura jumping in again to add in her two cents. This of course made her receive a glare from Ino and an annoyed look from Sasuke.

"Alright you know what listen; people like Deidara cannot comprehend anything else but the pain and suffering of others. They will never change, and that's why its people like me, or Nirvana 1, or any of the other supers in this city to protect the people from these dead-lasts of society." Sasuke looked straight at the camera when he said this and all with a dead-serious look on his face also.

Orochimaru then started tugging at the shoulder of his compatriot and started to lead him inside.

"Thank you for the opportunity Ms. Yamanaka, I hope this interview was what you were looking for?"

"Uh, yeah sure" She glanced over towards her cameraman and he just shrugged.

Orochimaru led Sasuke and Sakura into the glass sliding doors and Ino just watched them walk away with a little something more in her eyes than just confusion.

"Man that guy was a trip wasn't he?" said her cameraman who was settling down his camera.

"Yeah" replied Ino who was still staring intently at the back of Sasuke as he entered the award ceremony. As she was lost in thought, an idea came to her.

"Hey Tashi, stay here will ya and watch the camera. I'm gonna' see if I can pull anything else out of our Iron Liger."

Tashi he had just set his camera down looked at her puzzled as she walked away, "Hey, what the hell are you talking about?", but she was already through the doors.

Tashi just looked down defeated and gave a sigh. He knew the routine; every over-the-top celebrity that they met Ino always had her way with them. It was just her little something at the end of a hard days work, not excluding the work she always did with them later on. It was with this thought that Tashi knew that there was no way Ino would be coming out anytime soon, and there was no sense in staying.

* * *

"_And so here you have it ladies and gentlemen; all the hotties and celebs in the Rising Sun Award ceremony have now entered the building. Ha, get it, instead of leaving they're entering…You know because of the saying with Elvis…You know "Left the building, entering the building"…Do you get it? D-Do you get it……"_

"Why the hell are we listening to this crap?" One officer said as he was watching his fellow cop listening intently to the new broadcast.

"Aw hay come on you gotta be a little excited about this?" His younger comrade said as he glanced from where he was hunched over twisting the volume knob back and forth on the radio.

"Would you be surprised if I wasn't? And stop messing around with the volume, its fine where it is." The man then yanked his friend's hand away from the radio and just stared at him with disgust. "Besides, don't you think you're a little old to be concerned about this stuff?"

"Come on Frank, it ain't such a bad thing that I'm into pop culture." Konohamaru said looking back at his partner with a grin.

"Into it, you're obsessed, more than my niece is as a matter fact." The man who was called Frank responded to his younger companion in the car with him.

"How is Jenny anyway, is she adjusting to the move all right?" Konohamaru asked leaning back in his seat.

"She's fine I guess, she was having a hard time in the beginning but now she seems okay."

"Yeah I know the feeling" Konohamaru glanced outside his passenger window and stared into the black alleyway they were parked beside.

Frank Gagiranno looked over to his young, probably too young, partner and placed a hand on his shoulder. Despite the fact that he was in Tokyo for only six months, he was still able to find out a lot from his partner. For one thing, he found out that Konohamaru was orphaned at a young age, around twelve years old he told Frank. The kid said that his parents were killed in a car accident in the downtown area of the city, and since then he has always lived with his uncle.

He lived with his uncle, chief of police Asuma Sarutobi, ever since, and with his grandfather being the Prime Minister, he would always have protection where people wanted it. His opportunity at being something in life was big, well, a lot bigger than Frank's was, and he squandered it all because he wanted to be a police officer.

"Now where is the sense in that?" Frank asked Konohamaru one time, and the kid just smiled and said "But I like what cops do, protecting the people they love, that's something that truly is worth being."

That just goes to show you how naïve the kid was. It wasn't that he was stupid or anything, but his "looking at the world through rose-colored glasses" was the foil to Frank's lackadaisical attitude. For example, Konohamaru is the kind of guy that gets decked out in the usual Tokyo police attire and he's proud of it, whereas Frank isn't quite as enthusiastic. Frank, on duty, totally disregards the standard uniform and almost always brings in a beige trench coat with matching shoes and pants. The only thing that you could tell he was part of the Tokyo Police Department was the badge he had inside his coat. If you could juxtapose the two characters of Konohamaru and Frank, you would see that these are the most dysfunctional duo there ever was, but there was one thing that Frank had that Konohamaru lacked.

That thing was experience, and that was something that Frank had loads of. It was said that the entire reason for him being in Japan was due to a confrontation with the Abbruzzi family in New York. His information was essential in breaking contacts with the mob's affiliates in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and also bringing down the family head, Johnny "the Bull" Abbruzzi. However, his life didn't get any easier after he did this, as a hit was placed on his head that had every bounty hunter in the US looking for him. It took three close calls and an exploding car incident that made Frank's transaction to Japan go a lot quicker. And so here he was, sitting in a squad car next to pup straight from the litter; normally he could care less about his partners, but if anything happened to this one, he'd be fucked.

Still looking out the window Konohamaru broke the silence and said "I know you probably think that I'm too childish to be a cop, right?"

Frank just looked at him and sighed "Now hey stop that. That couldn't be further from the truth I mean look at you. I tell you what, if you look half as good with that uniform as I think you do then you'll be police chief before you know it." Frank said jokingly.

"Yeah, well, it's just that my uncle always acts like I'm not good enough to be a cop. He probably thinks that I always get in the way."

"No it's not that, your uncle just sees you as his little nephew and not another cop on the force. Don't worry though, you'll get your respect soon enough."

Konohamaru looked out at the window yet again and mumbled "Whatever" under his breath. Frank knew that all the kid wanted to do was show that he had the stuff to be a cop. Now, it's not that Asuma dislikes Konohamaru, far from the truth; it's just that he believes Konohamaru has a lot more going for him. To be a cop in this city isn't exactly glamorous, and now with the crime rates increasing it's gotten a lot more dangerous.

That was why Asuma didn't want Konohamaru out in the field; because he couldn't bear it if something happened to his late brother's only son. Frank remembered distinctly when Asuma tried to get Konohamaru behind a desk as soon as he joined up, but the kid wouldn't have it. Konohamaru really wanted to be on the frontlines and Frank respected that, but in all honesty it was quite foolish. He was only twenty-one years old, and he wants to protect people. If it were any clue to Frank, it may be that Konohamaru wanted to play the role of superhero, but he never mentioned that to him.

Upon seeing that his friend's mood had lessened, Frank had an idea that might just cheer the kid up.

"You know what kid, there isn't anything going down right now so why don't we grab a bite to eat huh?" Konohamaru looked over at his partner with a puzzled look.

"But aren't we supposed to stay here and make sure everything stays under control."

"Everything seems fine here to me, so what do you say, some ramen at Ichiraku's sound good?"

At the sound of his favorite ramen place Konohamaru's head picked up in excitement.

"Oh yeah that sounds great!" Frank just shook his head at the childlike manner of his partner. Unbeknownst to him, a Mazda RX-7 FD3S and a Mazda RX-8 were speeding down the road clocking in at over 225 km/s. The two cars flew by the squad car and both Frank and Konohamaru glanced at each other with a puzzled look.

"Sorry kid" Frank said as he revved the engine "We're gonna have to take a rain check on the noodles." And with that the car spun one-hundred and eighty degrees and sped off.

"Uh Frank, can I ask you something?" Konohamaru said as he clenched his seat; the car already speeding far above the regulated limit.

"Shoot" Frank replied with a stern look on his face; the lime green apint job on the Mazda glaring in his eyes.

"You do know that trying to catch these guys is pointless right, this car's engine ain't made to go that fast, we should turn back." The squad car swerved as Frank dodged a fruit stand; they were heading into the market district.

"Sorry kid but that isn't how it's done where I come from." He dodged and vendor, but he chipped the side and he vaguely saw a piece of wood go flying.

"Yeah well where I'm from if cars go over 180 km/s it isn't worth trying to chase them." Konohamaru was silenced when the car took a sharp right and collided into the side of a building while the two Mazda's drifted gracefully around the bend.

"Sumimasen! Sumimasen!"

"What are trying to say, 'sorry' is itamiiru not sumimasen."

"Well excuse me for not remembering my Japanese at this instant." The car swerved again, and Frank found it was becoming increasingly difficult to follow the two cars.

As Frank was intent on looking at the road, he did not notice where the drivers were taking them. The buildings were becoming closer together, and there weren't too many shops here. It seemed like a run-down place to be, a ghetto would probably be more bearable than this place.

As soon as Konohamaru glanced around after regaining his composure, his eyes widened in reality.

"Frank, do you know where we are right now!" At first Frank didn't respond, all he was trying to do was keep up with at least the green Mazda RX-8; the red and black RX-7 FD3S seemed to be too fast. He didn't even realize what his partner was saying to him.

"Frank? Frank? FRANK!!"

"WHAT!!"

"Do you KNOW where we are?"

"No as a matter of fact I don't does it matter?"

"Yes considering we are now entering the Underground. You know the off limits zone to us cops?"

"Really, off-limits, I didn't know that?" Frank said with due sarcasm as the car sped over a hill and flew for about a second.

"Bull-shit they taught you that the first day you got here." Konohamaru was becoming frantic with each sentence.

"Listen, these guys aren't just racing for the hell of it."

"And how do you know that?"

'Because no one would go into the Underground for a simple race, these guys have something they don't want noticed, that's why they're comin' down here." Konohamaru eased up a bit, but he still felt unsure about everything. His uncle always told him not to go into the Underground under any circumstances, but it just so happened that his partner didn't share the same fears as he did.

The trio of cars was speeding down the abandoned streets with only the shine of the moon guiding them. Even though the squad car was putting up a good chase, it would never be able to fully catch the said suspects. It was in all sense futile, but then suddenly Frank got an idea.

"Konohamaru take the wheel and keep it steady!!" Frank exclaimed.

"What are you talking abo…" Konohamaru was cut off when he saw Frank pull out his pistol from his holster.

"Trust me, keep the wheel steady and be careful." Even as he said this he pushed his foot on the gas and gave the squad car all it had.

Frank then rolled his window down and stuck his torso through the opening. He would only have one chance at this, one chance to find out why they're here, one chance to end the hunt.

"_C'mon you can do this." _Frank said as he readied his SIG-Sauer P220.

"_Steady your breathing, one shot is all it takes, one shot and it can all be over." _Frank unfastened the safety on his firearm and sidle up the crosshairs with the RX-7 FD3S's tire.

_"I have no other choice, they're too fast and this shit-car can't keep up. This bullet though can cross the distance in half a second. All I need is that one moment where everything's perfect..." _Frank cocked his gun ready, Konohamaru looking over at his partner, a look of wonderment in his eyes.

Unbeknownst to the two cops and there was another presence sprinting quickly over the rooftops keeping up with the cars as it went.

Frank clutched his gun; he didn't grasp it tightly or just let it sidle in his hands. He steadied his breathing a great deal and the wind blowing in his face hardly seemed to deter him.

"_Come on, show them what it's all about; give the kid a show." _His finger pressed lightly on the trigger, almost igniting the bullet inside when something flashed at the corner of his eye.

Frank couldn't tell what it was, but then another flash then _TWANG_, something had knocked his gun out of his hands, but that wasn't all however. The red/black RX7 careened into the wall of a local flower shop. Luckily the car hit the side of the building where the corner opened into an alleyway so most of the damage was done to the car, however that wasn't what was on Frank Gagiranno's mind at the moment.

Upon getting back into his seat and stopping the car, Frank inspected his hand which was cut across its back. Konohamaru looked it over and asked "What the hell happened?"

Frank just looked back to him and shrugged his shoulders. His heavy breathing wouldn't stop and it made it difficult to think of what had happened just now, but soon his cop instincts kicked in.

"Get out of the car Konohamaru; let's see what this is all about?"

"That's fine but what do we do about the other guy?" The young cop asked as he glanced toward the RX-8; it stopped and the driver was probably considering on helping his friend or not.

"Don't worry about that one just get out now." Both men proceeded to get out of the car and were heading on either side of the crashed Mazda.

Frank stole a glance at the other car, which had noticed Frank and Konohamaru, and high-tailed it outta' there. The driver figured it was no use in trying to help now that two cops were making their presence known.

Konohamaru drew his gone forth and went straight towards the passenger side of the car. Frank took out a flash light he kept and flashed it on the driver's seta and found a scared to death teenager glancing at him through tinted glass.

"Get out of the car now!!" Konohamaru ordered.

The person was reluctant at first but knew there was no other way out of this. He opened his door and immediately had Frank yank him over to the hood of the car while he also motioned for Konohamaru to join him.

"All right, now what was the big idea dragging us all the way out here?" Frank asked the kid.

"N-N-Nothing, me and m-my friend were j-just r-racing is all."

"Is that so, then why might I ask, are you doing in a place like the Underground hm?"

"Uh….Uhh…"

"Exactly, Konohamaru keep watch over him while I check the car."

"No problem boss." Konohamaru soon got out his handcuffs and linked them around the kid.

"Wait no please don't look in there, all that stuff is just… borrowed, yeah borrowed. Oh please don't send me to jail my parents wouldn't let me hear the end of it." Pleaded the possible seventeen year old as he struggled against Konohamaru's cuffs.

"Really, "borrowed"? Like I haven't heard that before." Frank said as he prodded the back seat of the car.

Konohamaru just rolled his eyes and kept the suspect secured as his partner was doing the routine check-up. Normally during these sorts of things, if the kids weren't racing, they're smuggling drugs or stolen cash. Either way this isn't looking good for the already teary eyed kid with his face pushed up against the hood of his own car. The thing though that he was really thinking about was what caused the cut across Frank's hand. Frank didn't seem to give it a second thought but damn, it looked like it hurt, a lot. But that was Frank for you though, always keeping the game face up and all. It was just the way he was, but still sometimes Konohamaru thought like he was some robot or something.

As Frank was scaling down the car, he noticed something sticking out of the back end tire of the car as he got out from the back-seat. He leaned closer to give it a closer look and embedded in the rubber was what he thought looked like a swastika with pointed ends. This was probably what had caused the car to crash, and also gave him the slash across his right hand. He tried to pull it out, but it went too far deep and the sides were extremely sharp. Even though Frank wanted to pull the damn thing out and see it clearly, he figured he had to check the trunk of the car and see what the deal for this goose-chase was.

As Frank sidled up alongside the trunk he opened it and glanced inside, and what he saw scared the hell out of him. In the small trunk were three small crates of CBU-52B's and about two crates of CBU-58A/B's. This kid was riding around the city with these explosives, and if Frank had been bad with his shot he would have blown up this entire block. Frank felt sick to his stomach at what he could have possibly done, but his thoughts were interrupted by his partner.

"So what's the story back there, is it drugs or money?" Konohamaru asked.

"No, as a matter of fact our friend here was carrying something a lot more… provocative." Frank replied, his eyes still glued to the bombs in the back.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Konohamaru then walked over to the back while carrying the suspect over to the trunk. As soon as he reached over to where Frank was he was astounded at what he was looking at. All the blood from the driver's face drained and it finally came to him the magnitude of the situation.

"So you were "borrowing" bombs now were you?" Frank inquired as he looked over to the kid now looking at the ground.

"Put him in the backseat, we're gonna' have a nice long chat back at the precinct." Konohamaru nodded and then yanked the kid over to the police car. Frank looked back at the trunk. He was incredulous at the whole situation; just what the hell was a kid like that doing with this many bombs, and where did he get them all in the first place.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here, Two cops and a snot-nosed kid playing in the Underground, I thought you woulda' known to keep out."

Upon hearing the voice Frank looked around to see where it was coming from. Konohamaru also readied his gun yet again once he heard what appeared to be a lady's voice coming from somewhere.

"My we're jumpy" replied the voice when all of a sudden someone dropped from the top of the flower shop onto the roof of the car. Frank couldn't see who it was, but what he could make out was a sword on the woman's back and a whole plethora of other weapons adorning her body.

Frank didn't know who it was, but upon seeing her Konohamaru had an inkling at who she might be.

"Just who are you and what are you doing here?" Frank said shining his flashlight on her face, or from what he could see from it.

Whoever this person was she was wearing a helmet that had a visor with an orange tint to it, and it had two openings on the side to allow two buns to hang outside. On each end of the bun was one strand of chestnut brown hair. The woman was wearing a tight fitting dark green spandex shirt with fish net sleeves; her boots were the same color as her vest and black shorts that seemed to tight to move around in, fishnet stockings covered her legs as well.

"Do you mind not flashing that thing in my face?" The woman asked, now standing.

"You didn't answer my question, just who are you?" Frank asked the woman who walked towards him and closed the trunk door with her boot.

"You're the straightforward type, not really what I'm in to for a man."

"Sorry I don't meet your requirements, now **just who the hell are you?**" The tension in the air was rising a bit as Konohamaru joined the side of his partner trying to calm him down.

"Hey Frank take it easy, you don't know you you're talking to."

"You're damn right I don't that's why I'm trying to figure it out."

"Jeez is you're friend always like this." The women said as she stepped down from the car and was standing face-to-face with Frank. Even though he was about a head taller than her, she was by no means intimidated.

"Listen, I'm the law around here, so there's no need for the Tokyo Police Department to be butting in." The woman lifted up a gauntleted glove and gave a confident smile as she said this.

Konohamaru held his hands up in defeat and got in between Frank and the mystery woman.

"I'm so sorry you see my partner here got a little anxious and didn't realize where he was going. We'll make sure this won't happen again." Konohamaru then grasped Frank's arm and started leading him away, but Frank just shook Konohamaru's arm off.

"I don't care if you wanna deal with this or not, but I'm not going to forget this ever happened. I'm sure you don't know, but when a cop finds bombs lying in the back of some car he reports it." Frank said this and headed over to the squad car to get the chief on his radio. All the while the scared punk in the backseat had no idea what was going on, all he was afraid about was that his parents were so going to kill him if they found out what he was doing.

Frank reached in and grabbed the radio set up in the squad car. He pulled out the walkie with the wire sticking out of the car. Frank began the usual police jargin.

"Copy in precinct this is zebra513, we have a situation here our 10-20 is the Underground outside of a "Yamanaka Flower Shop". We have an 11-25 with an under-age driver and….." Just then a shuriken had cut the wire and embedded itself in the driver's side door which Frank was leaning on. He laughed a little, incredulously, at this and threw the walkie part of the radio down on the ground.

"I told you no cops and I meant it, don't worry about this, I'll take care of it."Replied the woman staring down Frank.

"Listen little girl, why don't you go and play ninja someplace else and leave the situation to the cops." Frank directed toward the woman who scowled at his comment.

"And why don't you cops run along before you hurt yourselves and others for that matter."

"I'm not just going to bat an eye at this, do you realize the danger everyone here was in!?" Frank hollered in her direction.

"I knew of the danger everyone was in, you were the one that was about to shoot at a car filled with explosives." Barked the women right back at Frank her eyes being seen behind the visor showing anger.

"I didn't know they were in there."

"Regardless, you were going to take a chance at the risk of this entire block. You acted on your impulses without considering the other factors unknown to you. Listen, act when you are most positive of the outcome. Leave nothing to chance."At this comment both the woman and Frank were staring each other down, neither one of them saying a word. Konohamaru was in the background sweating over what just happened. He knew that Frank did not know who she was but still, you couldn't realize with the outfit she was wearing?

The tension in the air was enough to smother a person, but at this instant Frank lifted his eyebrows in curiosity and asked yet again, "Who are you?"

At this the woman gave off a little smirk and proceeded to back away. "You're not from here are you? Wait a minute of course you're not, you look American to me. The real question is who are you?"

"I'm Frank Gagiranno and yes I am American. I was sent here on… police business, and you, you still haven't told me your story."

The woman smirked and bowed.

"I am Kunoichi, local superhero and the law down here in the Underground, got me?"

"Oh so you're a super huh?"

"Correct." Frank nodded his head in understanding bringing his hand to rest underneath his chin.

"So in that case what do we do about this whole ordeal tonight seeing as you don't want any interference from us?" Frank then added crossing his arms at her.

"You can file a report as soon as you get back to the precinct, but it won't be any use. You see I was tracking this arms dealer for months. This was his latest trade-off. Right now I'm heading to wherever that kid's friends (she nodded her head to the kid sitting in the back) are holding up." Frank glanced back at the kid and then back at her.

"I can't let you have him, he's ours." Frank said flatly.

"That's fine you can keep him, I already have some thought as to where there little base of operations is."

"Why wait till now to bust them? If you knew where they were why didn't you do it before?"

"I work in the same way as you cops, I compile information and I deduce ideas. Only when I'm positive in my judgment do I act."

"Well in that case what will you do in this situation; I can't disregard this and what about the fact of the other car, do you know where he's going?"

"Of course I do, I wouldn't have let him get away if I didn't now would I?"

Frank rolled his eyes at how cocky this woman was acting towards them, as if they were children. He looked over toward Konohamaru, and the kid's eyes showed that he wanted to get out of there. However, things weren't settled here just yet.

"All right listen, I'm going to take this kid to the precinct, file a report about this, and we'll start an investigation tomorrow. Although, I'm not sure the chief would want me to keep a bomb threat and possible weapon running undercover all night."

"I have no worries about the cops coming into the Underground "gaijin", but who knows, maybe your right. That Asuma fella seems to be the real deal, not like old chief Morishima was."

Frank nodded his head as he scratched it. This had been a long night, longer than he wished it, and the fact is he was getting real hungry at the moment. He then decided there would be no use in trying to argue with the cocky "Kunoichi" as she called herself.

Frank then pulled out his hand in a gesture for a deal, and Kunoichi took it without hesitation. The only bad thing about it was that Frank held out his cut hand, and when the girl squeezed the pain increased and shot through his arm.

"I'm sorry I did that, I just couldn't allow you to miss. I can bandage it up if you like?"

"No I'm fine really; I've had much worse before." Frank said nonchalantly as he turned to head back to his squad car.

Konohamaru was just amazed at the whole situation, not only was he seeing the live Kunoichi in front of him, but his partner wasn't phased by her at all. If there was one thing that Frank needed to learn while here in Tokyo, it's to learn to respect the heroes running around the city, if not for respect, at least for common courtesy.

"C'mon kid lets get out of here." Konohamaru looked toward Frank who was already in the driver's seat. Konohamaru was about to follow suit, but he took one last look over at Kunoichi. She just gave him a smile and a sultry wink and soon leaped onto the side of a building and went to the roof. This night was truly something in of itself, and Konohamaru simply couldn't believe it.

"Well" Frank said "This night has been pretty interesting."

"You can say that again." Konohamaru replied.

"Are you sure it's all right letting her take it from here. In America we usually go after things like this. Not all cities are blessed to have super heroes runnin' around to protect the citizens." Frank said as he turned the key to the car, the engine roaring to life.

"Don't worry Frank; although she may seem cocky Kunoichi is one of our best heroes. Sometimes we gotta' just let the real heroes take control once in a while."

"Yeah, yeah whatever." And with that the car turned around and started heading back the way it came. The squad car passed a number of dead drug stores and little food marts, all of them seemingly oblivious to what just went down. But there was one bar in the vicinity that only appeared dead, for in reality in the bar's basement there was more excitement than what had happened on the street above. This is where we will meet our next hero.

* * *

The Alchemist Bar was one of the many bars in the Underground that had its very own fight club. It was here that men from all kinds of society vented out there frustrations by pummeling the crap out of one another. It was more of a bonding session though, than a senseless beat down however. The saying goes "you never know who you are if you haven't gotten in a fight". That was the code, the moral, the sole rule of the fight club that took in all people from every class in society.

No one truly knows how the fight club idea really came into play in the Underground. Some say it was some American by the name of "Skyler" or whatever; no one really cared. It was all about finding a haven for men who feel confused, and the amount of beatings they got here was meant to clear their heads.

As the night went on so did the number of fights go down that saw many a person beaten, bloodied, and bruised. If you were a new member, you had to fight, no questions asked. It was another rule that came during the club's inception, but I digress. With the night ending, all the men were witnessing the final match of the night. It was between a local shop owner and a long time member of the club.

This member had messy brown hair and a lean and a face made for movies. That was why at first no one took him seriously; they wrote him off as a pretty boy, but that all changed when he sent his first opponent to the hospital with a few broken bones. It was from there that he became one of the most respected members of the club, and also one of the most brutal.

The shop owner, though, put up a good fight; landing a couple of blows and what not. The scary thing of the matter, was the Kiba Inuzuka hardly seemed phased by them. He weathered the blows as if they were nothing, not even minding his bloody lip.

The shop owner came at him again, throwing punches wildly due to lack of focus. Kiba blacked all the hits and caught one of the fists that were heading toward his face. The other man's face shot with pain as Kiba squeezed with his might. Bones could be heard cracking and the man gritted his teeth with such force that they seemed to be cracking.

_"Time to finish this" _Kiba thought as he sent his fist toward the man's temple. The deafening crack that was heard was both sickening and impressive.

The shop owner collapsed, but he was still conscious. Kiba would have none of that, and soon he on top of the guy pummeling his face into the concrete. The cheers that were all around him died down as they saw the brutality of the beating. The man's face was already turned into mince meat and there was no way for him to call "mercy".

Kiba continued to hit until he heard a voice in the background.

"That's enough!" A man stepped out of the shadows revealing long, probably light bluish hair. Yeah it was weird, but no one made a comment about Mizuki's hair.

"The match is over Kiba." Kiba just looked at Mizuki and back at the man that was his opponent. His face was literally unrecognizable with blood spattered all over it. It was so much that it almost hid the man's broken nose, and a few of his teeth were settled around him. Kiba "hmphed" and got up, not even paying attention to the other men seemingly wondering why he had just gone caveman on a new guy.

"What made you snap all of a sudden?" Mizuki asked as Kiba passed without giving him a glance or a response.

Kiba made into the bowler room where everyone kept there clothes. He found his white T and leather jacket, found his boots, and the keys to his Deuce.

"Hey" someone called out from behind him. "Mind telling me what was that all about?" It was Mizuki again.

"I thought this is what we do? We fight until the other can't fight any more."

"Yeah Kiba, incapacitate him, **not **kill him." Mizuki let out a long drag from his cigarette. "Listen" he began to say, "If you're gonna act like this, the way you have been for the past few days, I can't let you come back man."

Kiba just scoffed at what he was hearing. Just showed him how simple these guys were.

"Hey listen to me Kiba"

"No you listen to me. You guys have been gettin' soft on me and I wanna know why? What's with you people?"

"What's with us? No I think the question here is what's with you; you've been trying to kill every man that stepped into the ring with you; any reason why may I ask?"

Kiba just stared at the ringleader of the Alchemist Bar's fight club and just shook his head and started to walk past him. Kiba was about to reach the entrance to the alley way entrance to the basement until Mizuki grabbed him.

"C'mon Kiba just ease it up a bit ya hear. You're one of the best in the club and a good man. Don't get frustrated with us." Kiba just shrugged Mizuki's hand off and opened the door to the alley.

The chill of the night air soothed him, but he also caught something else in the air that irked him.

"I'll be seein ya next week okay Mizuki, oh, and don't worry about me. I just have a lot of things on my mind."

"Just take it easy then all right?" and Kiba heard the cellar door close after hearing this, but he barely listened to what Mizuki said. Something else was on his mind.

Kiba headed over to the front of the bar and got on his dark red custom Deuce. The bike roared to life and Kiba careened it up the street. That "something" that was in the air before was a mixture of scents: burnt rubber, blood, sweat, and something else that was salty. It was by far the oddest thing that Kiba smelt.

_"Huh, who knows maybe it's another rape scene or something, but that doesn't explain the rubber. Whatever this is, it's intriguing me." _Then a smile came to Kiba's face, "_Guess my night ain't exactly over just yet. Akamaru is gonna have to wait for dinner then I guess."_

* * *

Seto couldn't believe the night he was having, of all the things that had to go wrong the cops show up and they take out Hiro.

"Shit" muttered the young man, "I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do."

His lime green RX-8 pulled up to a garage and he waited for it to open. All of a sudden the door jittered with movement and was pushed up by a man with a smile on his face and an eye patch over his right eye.

" Come on Seto get the hell in here; I wanna see the catch we got."

Seto drove in with frown on his face and his eyes downcast. The man with the eye patch and dressed in a black T-shirt and black pants came over to his window.

"So how did it go, good I hope?" The man asked.

All Seto did was give him a hard stare and then realization hit the other man.

"Wait, where's Hiro, I thought you said he was right behind you."

Seto got out of his car and looked back at the man, "He was Akira….but I lost him once we were being chased by the cops."

Akira eyed his partner and then asked, "Cops, what cops, cops don't come into the Underground for any reason."

"Yeah well these cops did, and they got Hiro for all its worth."

"WHAT!!" The man known as Akira yelled at the realization. He then turned toward the car's trunk and opened it and found only a box of Steilhandgranate and about a whole bunch of Titadyn 30 AG (compressed dynamite). It wasn't exactly the haul Akira was expecting.

"Where the fuck is the rest of it?" Akira asked breathlessly at the realization that the trade was busted.

"They confiscated his car Akira; they most likely found what was inside the car and are now taking him in."

"Why the hell did you let him take all the good stuff; for god-sakes we have nothing left over. Do you think this is going to make the plan go?"

"Hey first off, if you wanted to make sure things went down all right, then why didn't you drive one of the cars tonight?"

"Are you crazy!?" Akira started, pacing now with his hands over his face.

"You know Deidara would have killed me after the fiasco last week. He would surely shove a bomb up my ass sooner than talk to me now." Akira said as he glared at his subordinate.

"Listen, just because you're afraid to talk to him, also means that you have no right to criticize us for the operation. We had no idea the cops were gonna' give chase that's why we rushed here in the first place." Seto stared back into his boss' eye which gave him another glare in return.

Akira backed away, picked up a wrench, and hurled it across the garage. It nearly hit a man lying on a couch watching the Rising Sun Awards.

"Hey watch it you almost hit me!" The man said while he took another swig of his sake.

"Shut up!!" Akira was starting to see red now. After everything was going smoothly, something like this had to happen. His employer would not take the news well, and even worse if Deidara figured **he** was the one that lost his bombs.

"God, why am I surrounded by idiots who can't even get a simple exchange done?" Akira then rounded on Seto once more;

"Do you have any idea of how much shit this is gonna put on our plates you stupid, lazy, incompetent-"

"Well you know what Akira; you won't have to worry about us stupid and lazy bastards because after this I'm out." What Seto said had stopped everything in the garage at the moment: the man watching TV soon looked over to where the commotion was, the men working on cars stopped what they were doing, and Akira stood flabbergasted.

"What do you mean by "out"? Seto, quitting now is not an option." Akira said now lowering his voice to an angered whisper.

"Well it's an option that's on the table for me and I'm taking it, right after everything gets done." Seto said defiantly as he waved some strands of his long, black hair out of his face.

"Why you good for nothing piece of sh-" All of a sudden the lights went out in the whole garage; all the working stopped, the TV was off, and Akira and Seto were just looking around confused.

"Now this fucking place is failing me too." Akira pointed to the man on the couch. "Takayama go and check the circuit breakers."

"All right all right I'm going." Said the lazy man as he got up from the couch.

"The rest of you" continued Akira "I want you all to fucking get it together, and make my life, and yours, a lot easier."

Unbeknownst to Akira, something was crawling along one of the metal banisters above. It was too black to actually see the figure, but if you looked closely you would have noticed a dark red leather outfit, and maybe, just maybe, you would have noticed the blonde hair.

"You imbeciles are the reason why everything around here is shit; the reason why every time we try and do something it gets shat upon because of the god damned supers, and now we're taking crap from the TDP. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!"

Then, out of no where, something seemed to drop from the ceiling right behind Akira. The shock of the landing startled everyone and Akira turned. What he saw scared the shit out of him.

"You wanna' know what the hell this is?" A flame was created as the person said this, the ball of blue fame circling engulfing the gloved fist. The man then brought his fist toward his face revealing red goggles and three scars on each side of his face which was framed by blonde hair. Then the man said; "It's justice" and thrust his fist toward Akira.

The flame that emitted from his hand surprised everyone there, and it sent Akira twenty feet in the air and landing hard on the couch. The men stared around in wonderment at this, but it only lasted for a few moments; pretty soon they were all scrambling for weapons.

The man in red just flashed a toothy grin; "I sure as hell missed this." And with that he turned on his first attacker. The man yielded a crowbar and swung to his right. The man in red blocked the crowbar and knocked it out of the lackey's hands; he then grabbed him and swung him on the hood of the Mazda RX-8.

The man in red then jumped in the air and landed right on top of the lackey on the hood, cracking it underneath all the force. The lackey screamed in pain, but it was no matter as the man in red leapt in the air again and this time landing behind Seto. Seto saw him and backed away, but wasn't fast enough to dodge a punch that sent him careening across the floor. Not only was the punch powerful, but it burned with the fire that was emitted after the man in red had hit him. It left a scorch mark on Seto's white button down, and it honestly felt like he couldn't breathe.

However, the other members followed suit with their guns in hand and heads full of brass. They surrounded the man in red and he looked at them all with a perplexed look.

"Huh, really, you think that that will really work?" He smiles at the danger around him, not afraid at it one little bit. "All right fellas I was going easy on you before, but now I'm turning up the HEAT!!" Flames engulfed the man's body and they spread around him.

All the people that were once surrounding the man were all burnt or burning; a sadistic smile playing across the man's face. Akira just stared in shock at the whole situation and was still amazed at the sight.

"No" Akira mumbled "There's no way he can be back." Just then Takayama came back through the door from checking the breakers.

"Hey the breakers are totally burnt to a crisp, wonder what…did….that." Takayama stared at the sight of his fallen friends and a man engulfed in flames quite drastically. The sight so frightened him that in a second he was on the ground unconscious.

Then the fire had stopped emitting the around the man, but it left everything around him scorched or burning. The sadistic grin he had stayed with him, and he turned toward Akira, who at the moment was making a run for the door.

The man in red seemed to disappear in a flame of fire, but then reappeared in front of Akira, blocking the door.

"Well, Akira, long time no see eh?" The person grabbed Akira by his collar and picked him up with no effort.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Akira gasped when he said this.

"Aw what's the matter, not excited to see me? I'm hurt Akira, after our history together, you're a cold person, maybe I should turn up the heat." Then fire started building in the man's hands again; the blue fire making it unbearable for Akira to stare at the man in red's face.

"You bastard, what you expect a hug?" Akira said with venom in his voice; suddenly, his collar ripped due to them being burnt to a crisp. He fell on his ass and proceeded to back away; Seto was still on the ground watching everything.

"All right Akira, seeing as how you're in a bad mood I'll make this short. Now, what was the reason for your little weapons trade tonight?"

"Go to hell you bastard!" Akira yelled this at the man in red, but then a red boot came out and was placed on his throat.

"Akira, when you yell at me like that I get hurt, and when I get hurt I get nervous, and when I'm nervous, I get angry. It's the same attitude that lost you your eye."

Akira just looked at the blonde haired in utter resentment. He hated to be considered weak, especially to this guy, the bane to all of his plans and schemes. The Firefox had always been a thorn in his side. _"What the hell is he doing back?" _Was the thought that ran through Akira's mind.

"Listen to me Akira, if you're not gonna' tell me I'm gonna kill you, simple as that." The man's fist again burst into flame, and this time, it seemed like it was getting closer to Akira heart than before.

"No, please stop, I can't tell you!"

"And why not!?"

"Because I'll be dead either way!" Firefox frowned and soon had Akira in his grasp again, this time he was inches away from putting his burning fist into the man's chest.

"You sniveling waste I'm going to kill you-" Just as Firefox was about to send his fist plunging, someone called out "STOP!!"

Firefox turned to wear he heard the scream and found Seto trying to get back on his feet.

Seto disregarded the blood in his mouth and continued to speak.

"I'll tell you what you wanna' know." At this Firefox smiled; Akira glared at Seto and yelled "Don't you dare tell him a single thing Seto!"

Firefox tossed Akira aside and stepped toward Seto.

"Well Akira, looks like you managed to find a smart one." Firefox then proceeded to put a red-gloved hand on Seto's shoulder and stared him in the face.

"Now "Seto" was it? Listen, I heard what you said before; you want to leave this life behind. All the bad things you've done you can atone for right now, you understand? All you have to do is tell me who gave you the bombs, where will they be used, and who really is going to use them."

Seto just stared into the man, a little fear building up inside him. He looked back at the unknown super in front of him. "All right, we got the bombs from Deidara, we were planning on targeting the Rising Sun Awards, but that all changed due to the time restriction, so we decided to prepare for something else."

"Yes and that is?"

"It is the American Embassy, we decided that it was-" **BANG**

Firefox turned to see Akira holding a Desert Eagle in his hand and also a smile on his face.

"Sorry Firefox, things won't be that easy from now on out." Akira fired again, but this time he missed because he dodged a ball of flame sent hurdling toward him. Akira jumped on the other side of the couch and waited. Suddenly a burst of flame appeared behind him and he presumed it was Firefox. He fired straight in the flame, but was surprised to see Seto's burnt and charred body lying in the spot.

_"Impossible" _Akira thought _"He substituted Seto's body with the fire teleport, when the hell did he learn that?" _But his train of thought ended when he felt a hand on the back of his neck. He was then thrown up and slammed down on the floor. Akira had no time to react as a boot came crashing down on the back of his neck.

Naruto just looked around at the mess that just went down and was amazed at how fast things escalated. He "hmphed" and started to walk out of the garage. Not only did he not find out who was employing Akira's crew, but he had no idea when the attack on the American embassy was going to go down, if that was true or not.

He sent a jet of blue flame toward the garage door and melted the hole to walk through. He turned and looked back at the carnage, and found Seto's burnt body. He was sorry that he wasn't able to respect him, but basically he was dead anyway. The shot rang straight through the poor boy's skull. He was probably dead before he hit the ground. And as far as Akira goes, Naruto knew he would live, but he made sure he would never see Akira's face ever again.

Was there sense to the brutality that Naruto exerted, probably not. Didn't he say he wanted to protect people? Yes, yes he did, but the life of a hero is not always as "censored" as some would like to believe. Naruto acknowledged the darkness in him, and decided that it was much safer to let it out than let it manifest within him.

He never said he was a good person, and then sometimes he asks "Why should I be?" After everything he went through in his life, he sometimes can't afford to be peaceful.

* * *

"And so, without any further adieu I would like to present the final award for the evening. To the star tonight and also to Japan's most influential person. He is the next in line for the Uchiha Corps. Leader and he has sometimes been compared to American inventor Tony Stark. Now, I would like to present this most prestigious award, on behalf of me, the people of Tokyo, and the people all over the country, this year's Rising Sun goes to Sasuke Uchiha." An uproar of applause assaulted the Prime Minister after he finished the speech. As the spotlight shined over Sasuke Uchiha's seat, everyone was surprised to see no one there. Sakura covered her face out of shame and Orochimaru clapped without regard of the people's stares.

Then something caught Orochimaru's attention and he looked towards the back, and surprisingly, there was Fugaku Uchiha in the background. Orochimaru looked at him and Fugaku nodded with sadness. And so, Orochimaru got up from his seat and headed over towards the podium and shook the hand of the Prime Minister Sarutobi. Orochimaru then proceeded to speak.

"Hello, as you all can see I am not Sasuke Uchiha ( a few laughs came from the audience). Now I can only surmise what Sasuke would say and I would think he would be very proud that you would bestow this upon him. It is only through great humility that he does not accept this award for himself, and that he is constantly working for Tokyo, for Uchiha Corps., and for Japan. He is very grateful to all of you for supporting him through the bad times and the good. He loves this country, but most of all he loves the people, thank you." Orochimaru finished his winged speech as he steps down from the podium. All the while people are clapping believing what Orochimaru said to be true, that Sasuke was just one to be humble.

As Orochimaru sat back down, Sakura held her hand to her face and thought _"Where the hell could he be?" _

_(Hotel Bar)_

At the bar there were numerous celebrities that had received their awards or who were just having a good time. There Sasuke downed another shot of the American Jack Daniels that he liked, and soon asked the bartender for another one.

"Bartender, another round of shots please?" Sasuke asked.

"Coming up sir." Was the reply, but Sasuke didn't hear it. He was too busy looking at a blonde haired woman that he recognized as that reporter from before.

She was looking at Sasuke playfully, but never keeping the stare for too long. Regardless, Sasuke saw what she was doing and was willing to play. As the bartender came back over Sasuke pulled him in for a question. The bartender replied "Apple Martini sir." And Sasuke told him to go.

Ino was just waiting for the right moment to approach Sasuke, and that moment appeared when another Apple Martini she didn't order came her way. She smiled at Sasuke's direction, but he played as if he didn't notice it. She smiled and walked toward his direction, drink in hand, and sidled up beside him.

"So, I take it you didn't receive your award yourself Mr. Uchiha?" Ino said playfully.

"Very observant are we?"

"I'm a reporter; I'm supposed to be observant."

"Touché" replied Sasuke with a cocky grin on his face; he was leaning closer to her face until…

"So have you any idea that your weapons are being sent over to the Mid-East and to parts of Eastern Europe Mr. Uchiha?" Ino asked quite frankly.

"What?" Sasuke was caught a bit off guard at what this woman was going off on.

"Do you know that next to Tony Stark your weapons company is the second largest weapons producer on this side of the planet?"

"Really, I figured I was first."

"And honestly, did you just steal the Iron Liger idea from Tony Stark as well? It's quite a coincidence that you both have identical names."

"Hey, first of all I thought of Iron Liger on my own. I didn't even hear the name Iron Man until I was sixteen."

"And when did you become Iron Liger?"

"Twenty" Then Sasuke's eyes widened in shock; with Ino smirking at the look on his face.

"The surprised look makes you look a lot cuter Mr. Uchiha." Sasuke raised his eyebrows at this woman, who apparently was a lot more intuitive than he realized.

"I thought you were a ditzy Hollywood reporter just trying to get lucky with me?"

"First off, **you** were the one who bought **me** the drink, and secondly, I want to be a real news reporter, not a knock-off of one." Ino was the one with the cocky grin as she went toe-to-toe with Sasuke Uchiha and seemingly won.

_"If he knew who I really was than he would be really surprised." _Ino thought as she decided to close the distance between their lips.

Sasuke saw this and took his opening and met her lips. They were soft and pliable, to his chapped and skillful ones.

Ino thought that maybe she should take the initiative and opened her lips to let her tongue through. Sasuke gladly complied and let her tongue inside. She was surprisingly the dominant one as she forced his tongue to the back of his throat. Sasuke soon fought back and he brought his hand around Ino's waist. It didn't matter that people were around them, they were too caught up in each other, too caught up that they didn't notice the man behind them.

"Ahem, if you would excuse me for a moment?" Came the demanding voice from none other than CEO of Uchiha Corps. Fugaku Uchiha.

Ino looked surprised and blushed considering that Sasuke's father had saw them suck-facing. It was more than a little embarrassing.

"Excuse me young lady, but I would like a word with my son if you will?"

"Of course Mr. Uchiha." Just as she was about to leave Sasuke grabbed her and pulled her in "This isn't over he said." and told her to wait outside for him.

Sasuke then turned to face his father and looked at him with a bored look.

"Well" Sasuke started, "You said you wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes I did" Fugaku stated and ordered a sake for his trouble.

"Now" Fugaku continued, "Why is it that you are incapable of being respectable?"

"To who, me or you?"

"It doesn't matter just to be respectable in general. How many times are you going to let Orochimaru accept awards for you; pretty soon people will think he's really Sasuke Uchiha."

"Oh no that is impossible; no one could ever mistake him for me."

"Well his constant speeches of you working hard, being shy, and humble will not work for long. Start taking responsibility."

"I am taking responsibility, every day where Iron Liger is out there that is me doing my responsibility."

"I am not talking about Iron Liger I am talking about my son." Fugaku gripped Sasuke's shoulder and looked him dead in the eyes.

"What would mom say about you?" At this Sasuke shrugged his father's shoulder off and gave him a glare in return.

"Maybe if you stuck around long enough you would know what to say yourself." And with that Sasuke left without hearing anymore from his father, who just looked down defeated.

Ino was waiting for Sasuke and he appeared soon enough with a stoic look on his face. When she neared him though it disappeared and he put his arm around her waist and led her to the limo.

"Are you tired?" Sasuke asked, and Ino just nodded her head "no".

"Perfect" Sasuke said and brought his lips towards hers as he kissed her again.

The kiss was not forceful, but Sasuke wanted to make sure she would be dazed after it. When he pulled away, Ino still had her lips closed and her lips puckered. As Ino looked into Sasuke's eyes, and he looked into hers, she knew that tonight they would be no time for rest.

**1) Nirvana is another superhero that was introduced in this story, but was not properly mentioned. Can you figure who she is?**

**2) This is a NaruSaku story don't worry, but the relationship will come with time.**

**3) There will be a bigger role for Frank Gagiranno than just mere cop, you'll see**

**4)FireFox's history will be explained in bigger detail throughout the story, along with all the other characters in the story.**

**5)Kiba's super hero name will be mentioned soon enough, don't worry**

**6) Orochimaru is acting OOC for a reason, you'll see, and if you saw Iron Man, you may have a hunch on where it is going.**

**7) Sasuke is OOC, but don't freak out, you'll see as we look more in-depth with his character later on.**

**8) Even though this is an "M" rated story, I don't want to cheapen it with lemons. I was planning a SasuIno lemon, but I wanted your opinion first. Tell me in your reviews if I should do them or not. Also, SasuIno is not a main pairing.**


	3. Vices of the Protectors

**Hey everyone sorry that it's been awhile since I updated but I went to italy for a few and my aunt's town/village had no internet. Anyways I'm back with a new chapter which officialy closes the first night in our City of Heroes. Now, there is a lemon in here and I will point it out. If you wish to skip then that's no problem as it really didn't reveal a whole lot, just shows which character is Nirvana. Also this is my first lemon and I really I think I half-assed it. So if you you all think that its poorly written, nasty, short, too long, or just irrelevent then whatever. Just know that I hope it don't turn you away from the story. Well in that case everyone I'll see you when I see you, later.**

* * *

**Vices of the Protectors**

As the squad car was speeding down the street out of the Underground, Konohamaru was surfing the radio to find any coverage for the Rising Sun Awards.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Frank asked as he was concentrating on the road ahead.

"I just wanna' see who won tonight." Konohamaru replied as he was switching from channel to channel so fast that the words came out as garble.

"You know that wouldn't sound so weird if it weren't for it being some hoity celebrity award thingy." Frank said as he got on the highway.

"For your information this award "thingy" is just as much a part of Japanese culture than any other thing out there; you might learn something if you just gave the time to care." Konohamaru said without even taking his eyes off the radio.

"Yep because I'm going to learn a lot more about Japanese culture by watching that thing than any tourist guide will tell me, you're right." Konohamaru just rolled his eyes when he heard this and continued searching.

"Hey…can I listen to some music?" asked the seventeen years old in the backseat, which just brought an incredulous look to come on Frank's face.

"NO you may not listen to some music, w-what do you think this is a cab. No I'm not gonna' let some bomb running, fast car driving, and gel in the hair punk listen to the radio! Man get outta here!" and with that the kid went back to being quiet.

As Konohamaru was continuing his search, he finally found a station that might give him some insight.

"Here we go" Konohamaru said, "This station always got something to say, and it's always up to date too."

"Really that is **so **cool!" Frank added the sarcasm just to annoy Konohamaru, who was annoying him. The thing is you're a cop with a criminal in the backseat, albeit a young criminal, you gotta' keep a hard attitude.

**"Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome back after tuning out of the Rising Sun Awards. Now, as some of you may or may not know, Iron Liger a.k.a Sasuke Uchiha has just been nominated as Man of the Year. Even though it wasn't Mr. Uchiha going up and accepting the award, it was still a grand moment for man that's been through a lot of ups and downs."**

"I knew he'd win." Konohamaru stated as he rested back in his seat.

"Please he's probably the biggest punk in this city." Frank mentioned without even taking his eyes off the road.

"And he's also this city's biggest super hero." Konohamaru said right back at Frank.

Frank "hmphed" and continued staring blankly at the road; the radio DJ continued.

**"Yes this boy has had quite a rollercoaster life and it all started with the death of his mother, Mikoto, back in 2000. Sasuke was not present for this as he was away at college in America. **

**Although the death of his mother impacted him greatly, Sasuke quickly returned back to MIT and there graduated with scores said to rival that of Tony Stark's. Upon returning home though, things were not as calm in the Uchiha household as previously thought. In fact, tensions were high and it all culminated in the falling-out of Sasuke's older brother Itachi.**

**The death of Sasuke's mother had also driven a rift between himself and his father, and this certainly caused concern when it came to Uchiha Corps. The fact is that Itachi was always scheduled to be the new CEO once Fugaku retired, but now the responsibility fell upon his younger son Sasuke. Things were never the same afterward…**

**It all began when Fugaku was away on representing Uchiha Corps. that he entrusted the management of his company to his 23 year old son. A seemingly daunting task, Sasuke surely benefited from the aid of vice president of Uchiha Corps, Orochimaru. **

**During this period however, of Fugaku not being in Japan we seldom saw his son step out in the spotlight, or so we thought. You see while Sasuke Uchiha never stepped outside, Iron Liger was making numerous appearances. It was only until Sasuke revealed himself as Liger during the World's Festival of 2003. From then on Sasuke has been playing the role of playboy, inventor, boy-genius, superhero, and now Man of the Year; there is simply no telling where this boy's potential plans to take him."**

"My God they make it sound like he won the Nobel Prize or something; I guess you're really not alone in your obsession after all Konohamaru." Frank said jokingly as he took the exit that would take them into the commercial center of the city.

Konohamaru just shook his head and raised the volume a little more; the kid in the back was just gazing out the window.

**Well everyone it is now 12:00, "Hero Block"" folks. This is the segment of the day where we run down all the facts of the Tokyo heroes so you, the people, can feel somewhat close to your caped crusaders. And now, to take you away with this segment we have DJ Marvel at hand. Wuzzup Marvel!!**

**"Yo man nuttin much considerin that I talk about heroes for a living. Anyways all you foxes and coxes I'm gonna' give you the 411 on what you know about heroes, and what you "think" you know. Let us begin shall we?"**

**Now, first and foremost, Iron Liger. He is by far the most popular hero there is out there and Sasuke Uchiha makes no qualms about letting down his fame. For some people, especially our American tourists, they say that Liger is just a rip-off of Iron Man, Tony Stark's alter ego. **

**Now to say that both men are completely the same is quite wrong, but you gotta' admit that Uchiha's and Stark's designs can both be juxtaposed to one another. For example, Iron Liger was built completely by Sasuke Uchiha himself, and he utilizes the latest technology that Uchiha Corps institutes. Literally a man-made superhero, Sasuke Uchiha has redefined the definition of what is a "super" hero.**

"They're talking about him again, why?" Frank was getting perturbed at the entire hubbub being made for Sasuke Uchiha. To Frank, he was just another celebrity his niece Jenny crooned over and nothing more.

"Hey quiet man I'm actually trying to listen to this." Konohamaru retorted as raised the volume once again to drown out Frank's mumbling.

**"Our next super hero for the segment is our blonde haired bomb-shell Nirvana. I tell you what, if there were more of her runnin' around I swear I'd think I'm in heaven. She's got the skills to lay it down to all those fools who think they can fight the law, and ya'll better believe she ain't just a pretty face. Those crazy brainwaves that she got can mess a brother up, and that skimpy outfit of hers can stop a man in their tracks.**

"My god is this guy on something?" Frank asked listening to the radio DJ hyper voice.

"No he is not "on" something, he's just American." Konohamaru replied, and the kid in the backseat laughed a little.

"Hey kid what's your name anyway?" Frank asked as the teenager in the back; the teen was taken aback but answered anyway.

"Uh…my name is To-"

"Quiet Shirley I could care less what your name is." said Frank.

"Shirley isn't my name."

"I just said I don't care what your name is, so **shut-up."** The kid sat back defeated and figured there would be no leeway with this cop, so he decided that keeping quiet was the best thing for him.

"Hey maybe on the kid, you know?" Konohamaru asked but Frank just ignored and continued to drive.

**"Last but not least in the Hero Block, we got the Underground's top crime fighter and local ninja, Kunoichi." **

At the sound of her name Frank shot his head toward the radio, Konohamaru saw this and smiled a little bit. He knew Frank was only interested because they had met Kunoichi not too long ago, but still it was kinda cool to see him get excited like that.

"Konohamaru turn this up?"

"I thought you didn't want the volume up too high." Konohamaru was making fun of Frank's state, but Frank just gave him a look that said he was serious.

"Okay, Okay jeeze there." And with that Konohamaru raised the volume a little bit more.

**"Yeah man I'll tell you what this girl's got a lot on her plate if she's tackling the Underground, but as far as she's concerned, she'll be all right. This girl is armed to the teeth with whatever kinds of weapons that ninja's carry, and she's got damn good aim. You can ask boss Tanaka of the West Side Yakuza. Man he got so many ninja stars up his ass he was crapping metal for over a week. **

**And don't worry folks she's got help. Dire Wolf is always patrolling the alleys too dark for anyone to want to go down. They say he rides down his victims with a bike, chain, and a nasty pair of claws, but it's not like you're ever going to see the guy. He's pretty much decked out all in black, man the mutha' looks like a bondage king, but hell if anybody says that. He's mean, he's scary, and damn if it weren't for that dog that follows him around everywhere, because I tell ya, if it ain't Dire Wolf than it's his mutt, and neither one is a nice character to meet in a dark alleyway. **

**And now ladies and gents for the last few minutes of the Hero Block, I'm gonna' give you a little insight to that dark, dank place in Tokyo we call the Underground. Now if ya'll haven't been hearin' nuttin keep your ears open, because crime in the Underground is comin' to a trickle these last few months. No one knows what's goin' down and I see that it ain't no chance that it's the cops doin' there job. Ever since that debacle with Chief Morishima and the raid he conducted, things haven't been cordial with cops and the "Underlings" as we like to call them.**

"Did you hear about this?" asked Konohamaru, confused with the report on the Underground.

"No shh" Frank was listening more intently now than when he heard the Kunoichi report. He had no idea about the Underground's situation, maybe because he was a cop and cops weren't made aware of things concerning the Underground, but sill.

_"Things are definitely a lot more different here than back home." _Frank pondered as the report continued.

**"There ain't no telling who's doin' all this crime fighting in the Underground; maybe it's Kunoichi, maybe Dire Wolf, or maybe it's some other super that wasn't mentioned here tonight. The only thing we got on this boy is a bunch of charred gangsta corpses and a decreasing crime level. All you gotta' say is keep up the good work man, and hopefully you don't burn down the city while you're at it. Ciao folks, and remember, if you want the facts that'll quench your super hero curiosity, tune in to 95.13 HBU. Marvel Out!!"**

The attention then swung to the other DJ who was unnamed throughout, but Frank could really care less.

**"There you have it people tonight's Hero Block with DJ Marvel; tune in next week fo-"**

Frank turned off the radio and looked over at Konohamaru, he then asked, "Did you know anything about this Underground thing?"

"Not really, but I did hear my uncle talk about a few times but he never went into it." Frank pondered over the information a little bit, but couldn't reason why a radio DJ would know this information but not the cops.

"This is ridiculous, this whole Underground thing is getting on my nerves, right when we get back I'm asking your uncle of he knows anything." At the sound of this Konohamaru turned to face Frank instantly.

"Are you crazy I wasn't even supposed to hear that. It happened by accident when I was getting some coffee. He was on the phone with probably grandpa and…I heard it." He said the last statement with a shrug, but Frank would have none of it.

"Listen" Frank started "I'm tired of being kept in the dark you understand me? We're cops for god sakes, we entitled, no, **supposed **to know this information."

"Frank this isn't America, we entrust things on very fine laws that everyone abides by, and it's the only way that total anarchy doesn't break lose."

"So we completely sacrifice our self-respect; be treated like children so as the supers can look down on us. In America there is-"

"We aren't in America, Frank." Konohamaru interrupted.

"And I think the more you realize that you'll have a better time adjusting to this place." Konohamaru added this which only gave him a perturbed look from Frank.

Throughout the radio broadcast and now the little argument between the two cops, the squad car finally found its way to the Tokyo Police Department precinct. As Konohamaru got out of the car, the teen was unceremoniously yanked out by Frank, and they made their way to the front door of the building; just as they were about to enter Frank stopped and looked at Konohamaru at the doorway.

"What's the matter?" asked Konohamaru looking at his gruff partner.

"You said that DJ on radio was American, is that true?" Frank inquired as he proceeded again up the steps.

"Yeah why?" Konohamaru stated as he opened the door for the two men.

The trio walked into the precinct which had little people due to it the graveyard shift, and no one stayed inside the building unless you had a desk job. That person was the girl Ayame sitting in the back with her head looking at a computer screen and her fingers quickly typing.

As Frank was about to descend the stairs that led down to the cells, he turned and answered Konohamaru's inquiry from before.

"Nothing, just a little idea I had about procuring some facts." With that Frank descend the stairs tugging along the kid with him.

Konohamaru was always a little worried for Frank, but he never would say that. The only reason because is that Frank had the impression that it was his duty to watch out for Konohamaru like an older brother. It was nice but it never allowed Konohamaru to be taken seriously; so how would Frank take it that Konohamaru worried about **him? **Probably not well due to the fact that Frank never really liked being "watched out" for; maybe it's because he has an inferiority complex, or maybe it was him being so humble that he didn't want others to concern themselves with him. Either way Konohamaru simply watched Frank's shadow receding down the stairwell and didn't bother to follow him down.

* * *

Leaping along the rooftops was Kunoichi trying with all haste to make it to her destination. She didn't realize how far away the garage was, but it made no matter to her. She didn't mind exerting energy just as long there was enough for the fighting afterwards.

As she was nearing her destination her mind drifted back toward that cop she met earlier. Never before had she met a cop that was so persistent in his duty, or maybe it was that she never judged any cop beforehand. The reason for this is because she knows how cops truly were; throwing their weight around on those they hold more authority over. A justice system is not meant to put down those less fortunate, but was meant to protect them. It was supposed to protect her parents from….

_"Never mind that now you have a job to do." _TenTen reassured herself.

That moment in her life truly was her darkest moment; the things that nightmare's are made of. But she was strong and she wouldn't let these thoughts get in her way of her business, no her duty.

_"I promised myself and Dr. Honda that I wouldn't think about them, that's why he gave me those pills right? Either way girl, you're gonna have to pull yourself together now, all right." _TenTen took one major leap that made her soar over one rooftop and land on another one; she was getting closer.

_"All right you know the drill, incapacitate all those pun ks except for the leader, then, you ask questions: "Who are you?", "Who do you work for?", etc."_

She wasn't expecting a large fight from the thugs, but if it was any thing to say about her job, it left little for comfort. Just as she was anticipating another leap to land on the garage a plume of smoke and flickers of a fire caught her eye. Her eyebrows arch in curiosity and pretty soon those gorgeous legs are taking off again; the orange of her visor glinting in the lights of the moon.

As she made the last jump for her destination, she saw the cause for the flame that night.

_"My God" _TenTen thought as she gazed at the burning garage in wonderment.

Whatever was left of her target was reduced to ash and rubble. The only thought that went through her mind was what in the hell happened here, but those thoughts were soon interrupted when she heard the roar of a motorcycle in the distance.

_"Who could possibly be riding around at this hour?" _she thought. So long as they stay clear of this area, there wouldn't be any trouble. She won't allow any more interference than she wished, but who she saw riding up surprised her.

Kiba was never one for late night surprises. So when he tracked the scent he had gotten earlier he was dismayed that it led someplace else.

"Jeez, tracking a raping isn't nearly as hard as this; who knows where the hell this goon went." Kiba said as he was now following the burnt rubber smell that led away from the accident he saw earlier.

"Well, wherever this guy was going he was in sure a hell of a hurry." Kiba stated also as he was making his way down the street.

As soon as he made his way down half a block a strong scent of smoke and burnt metal invaded his nostrils. His extra sensitive nose backed away from the smell and it made his eyes tear up. Kiba stopped his bike and tried to shake off the weariness that overcame him; wherever the smoke was coming from there sure was a lot of it.

"Ah God what the hell is all this about?" he asked as he looked up at the sky, and while looking up, he saw smoke billowing from some place.

Now the thing was fire in the Underground wasn't an uncommon sight, in fact, it was done regularly by the street gangs in the area. However, the rubber smell seems to be going in that direction. What if it led him to the spot of the fire, then things would get really interesting tonight. From cops actually entering the Underground, Kunoichi somewhere in the area, and him almost getting ousted by his fight club, things tonight were keeping him on his toes.

As he sped off toward the fire thoughts came to him about what the significance of what went down tonight. He had gotten a funny feeling about everything all the way back to the scene of the accident, and it just seemed to get worse. At first he thought that this could have been a regular race between rival gangs, but that wasn't it. You could call it sixth sense about danger, but Kiba had always had a knack for sniffing things out (no pun intended). You see it was not just because he was Dire Wolf, the Hound of the Underground, but also because his life was tough ever since the beginning. His dad up and left his mom, and she was tough and an alcoholic (not a pretty combination). The only consolation he had was his sister that took care of him no matter what. Even though her veterinarian job kept her busy most of the time, she always lent his mother a helping hand whenever.

That was the redeeming point for his mom, that even though she had so many cons: she loved drinking, smoking, and brought home dead-beat boyfriends; she always wanted the best for Kiba. That's why his sister always made sure he was out of the house when he was little so he could just unwind.

His mom was still around and he visited her now and then, but the way he had to keep lying about the cuts and bruises he not only got from the fight club, jabbed at his conscience. He thought of telling her about him being "that crazy wolf guy" on television, but he knew better. His mom was tough but man, if the guy that she liked wanted something from her, he'd ask and she would give.

That completely made her untrustworthy.

The supers around the city know who he is, but the only normal person that knows about his secret identity was his sister Hana, and that was because he let it out when he was really drunk one night. It was funny, because he tried to play it off that he was just drunk and didn't know what he was saying, his sister still believed him though. The fact that it was funny was that she still was critical of him even when drunk; I guess that's why he told her in the first place; that she was a tough person and honest too.

Anyways getting back to the now and then, Kiba was riding down the street towards the fire, and also following the scent. As soon as he turned the corner he was amazed at seeing a large, one-story garage alight with flame. The rubber smell disappeared from here and he just looked around to see if it went any place else.

_"So" _Kiba began, "_Apparently I'm not getting any breaks this night now am I?"_

As he continued to gaze at the flames, he didn't notice the person atop the building beside him watching him. Kiba was so engrossed in the scene, that he didn't even realize the figure drop down and land, hard, on top of the pavement. TenTen figured that the only way to get Kiba's attention now was to speak.

"So Kiba, I guess I'm not the only one out tonight now am I." TenTen called out to Kiba, who just turned his head with indifference.

"Well, Kunoichi, this isn't a surprise seeing as I picked up your scent a while back. Question is what are you doing here?" Kiba asked as he turned his head back toward the flames.

"I was on the trail of a "hot" car and my research has led me here, to there base of operations."

"How "hot" was the car?" Kiba asked.

"The first car had enough explosives to burry a couple of buildings, the other I don't know, I was sidetracked on my way here."

"What, you mean the cops?" Kiba asked with some confusion.

"Yeah, just what they were doing here I have no idea, but I guess it just deals with recklessness." TenTen said as she recalled her altercation with the American cop a while back.

"They know they are not supposed to be here TenTen; they're too afraid of what might happen. You know as well as I do that this place is a powder keg, any simple action can set it off."

"I know Kiba that's why I was trying to make quick work of them, but they wouldn't move. Don't worry though I took care of them, it's just I guess I took longer than I thought." TenTen said with a little anger in her voice, knowing that she could have been here before God knows what leveled the place.

The anger was evident in TenTen's face and Kiba just shrugged, he knew that she was one that didn't like cops after the incident so many years ago. He heard about how the how a highly important Chinese diplomat and his wife were killed in a designated hit somewhere in Tokyo. No one was spared, not even the bodyguards; the only one left alive was a little girl, the daughter of the diplomat. That little girl's name was TenTen Dian Xia, and she became the woman that stood in front of him.

The fact that this occurred and that the help from police did not arrive until an hour later made her become embittered toward the entire Tokyo Police Force. She had a good reason; when a foreign diplomat is killed you should make sure you're there on the spot. However the former Chief of Police, Danzo Morishima, was a man as crooked as any Yakuza boss. No one knew how he got the job, but the only thing was is that he turned the city into a well-guarded safe. He made sure everything went by on his terms, good and bad. He was taken care of a few months ago by Prime Minister Sarutobi. He took care of him and replaced Danzo with his own son, Asuma.

Kiba's thoughts were soon broken when he heard, "Who do you think did this eh Kiba?"

He looked back at TenTen and just shrugged again, "I don't even know we can say it was someone that did it, it could just be an accident or something."

"No way, there are no accidents Kiba, everything happens for a reason." TenTen said with a completely emotionless face.

A long silence came between the two as the fire from the building still flickered with vigor; it seemed like it was going g to burn all night. Kiba studied TenTen's serious features and started to laugh a little. He then started to laugh a little under his breath, then it was becoming louder, pretty soon he was going on a full-hearted fit of laughter.

TenTen quirked an eyebrow at Kiba's behavior and asked what he was laughing about. It seemed that Kiba gave a somewhat happy grin and his eyes were as bright as the fire in front of them.

"Do you feel that TenTen? Ah shit!" Kiba then went on another fit of laughter.

"Do I feel what, what are you talking about?" TenTen asked again out of concern.

"Come on TenTen don't you feel it, the rush that we used to feel before everything went boring. C'mon this just goes to show you that the old times are rolling back again. The time when there was action all around and blood by the buckets. These are the days that make my life interesting, the days that make you feel like a .45 is pointed to your head." Kiba then looked toward TenTen again and gave her a grin.

"The old days are coming back and I'm feeling the incentive I need to do my best again. That there ain't a coming back once you're out there excites me. It's all or nothing baby, do or die time."

"Well in the mean time who do you think did this, do you think the rumors people are saying is true?" TenTen asked

"I don't know." Kiba said as he calmed down "The only thing I got to say **if** he is back is that I'll skin him alive once I find him."

"Yeah but foxes are hard to find, even for a wolf." TenTen said to her friend.

"We'll see about that."

* * *

Naruto filed into the room that was designated as the Prime Minister's suite in the hotel. It was the same hotel that presented the Rising Sun Awards earlier tonight, and right about now Naruto concluded, Prime Minister Sarutobi would be filing in through the door any moment. He had to say it was quite interesting to see the Prime Minister again, but this time it would be on the same side of the card.

Naruto wondered how Sarutobi would react once he saw him, and also how the bodyguards will take it that FireFox is holding an audience with the Prime Minister.

_"We'll see how this goes." _Naruto thought as he just took a seat at the far end of the room.

The lights were out which made Naruto sit in complete darkness. He thought it would be quite amusing to "surprise" Sarutobi a little bit, even if it did mean scaring him. Now Naruto only had to do was wait for Sarutobi's arrival, and then he would explain what had occurred this night. The only problem with this is that Naruto had little to no patience; to him it wasn't a virtue. Doing nothing, to him, bred laziness, and laziness bred contempt.

Naruto got up from his seat and looked down on all the people filing out of the hotel. The awards now are surely over, so that would mean that Sarutobi would be coming up any minute now. How Naruto knew that Sarutobi would not go home is common sense, he figured that he was old and old men need their rest.

Naruto glanced back at the door to see if there was any inclination as to Sarutobi entering the room. There was not so Naruto decided to look back down at all the people still struggling to make it to their limousines.

"Pfft, pompous assholes." Naruto scoffed looking at all the celebrities and "famous" people.

"I should just burn them all. What makes them think they are above everything?" Naruto's hand was beginning to burn and his fingers were leaving scorch marks on the glass.

He was surveying the crowd until he saw someone that struck his eye, a woman. Here is where is eyesight came in handy as he soaked up the looks of the girl. She dressed up all properly, but the dress that she wore showed enough that left little for the imagination. It was a sparkly red dress with slits cut up to the hips of the girl. The top of her dress was strapless and it hugged her curves excellently. She was beautiful, even if the dress did make her seem a little "whore-ish" she was gorgeous regardless. But what really captured him were her emerald eyes which completely stood out from her brown hair. It made her exotic and it left Naruto wanting.

By the looks of it she was a little upset about something. She was talking to a man with long hair and with a pair of John Lennon sunglasses on. Who knows why he was wearing them in the middle if the night, but Naruto guessed it was so bright down there that it didn't make any difference. Regardless, that attitude pissed him off. They all get decked out just so they can look better; it was that kind of mentality that Naruto hated.

As Naruto was reminiscing about the girl down below he didn't notice the door to the room opening up. He immediately turned around and headed to the corner where it was darkest.

There was a man that entered the room as the door opened; he was a big guy with an attitude that seemed like he took his job too seriously.

"It's all clear sir." The man said as he flipped on the light switch that illuminated all but where Naruto was.

"Very good Tokugowa, all right Prime Minister it's all safe." said another man with a wrap around beard and a cigarette in his mouth.

"Honestly Asuma must you insist to call me that, I'm your father remember." An old man replied as he walked into the room. Even though he seemed frail and all, Naruto knew there was something other than frailty in the man's spirit.

_"Prime Minister Sarutobi…we meet again." _Naruto thought as he glanced around the corner where he was at.

"Listen father you can never be too careful when it comes to things like this. You never know what can happen, and besides, you said it yourself that "every good strateg-"

""Strategist takes everything into account" I know." Mimicked the Prime Minister as he copied what his son had just told him.

Asuma just gave his father a curious look and started to head out, but Sarutobi stopped him.

"Sometimes I wonder that you're a little too serious Asuma, maybe some time off would help."

"Sometimes **I **wonder how you can act so serious towards everything else but your own life."

Asuma just looked down at his feet and started to head to the door, but he was stopped by his father's voice.

"I understand my son; there is no need for you to worry for this. I thank you for taking the responsibility to escort to my room." The Prime Minister smiled as he said this while his son just gave him a knowing look.

"Just be a little more mindful of things." Replied his son and with that Asuma was out of the room.

Sarutobi could not believe how his son just treated him as a five year-old child and just rolled his eyes. He made his way over to the mini-bar present in the room and pulled out some sake. He was the Prime Minister for crying out loud, and he was being treated like a runt by his own son.

"Unbelievable." Sarutobi stated as he took a drink from the sake bottle without pouring it in a cup.

"Well it's good to see these nice family moments" Sarutobi didn't even bother to turn around to see who the voice was, he already knew.

"Tell me how is it that a man like you is able to take that kind of stuff from your own son? I mean if I had kids I would have no problem smackin' across the head."

"Well let's just hope you won't have children." The Prime Minister replied as he turned to face the snickering blonde now sitting on his couch.

"You always have something to say even to me. Its funny how things came about now isn't it.?"

"All I know is that you've made the first good choice in a life bereft of any happiness. I'm proud of you Naruto, even if you can't see it yourself." At this statement Naruto stood up once again and walked straight up to Sarutobi. He picked him up and removed his goggles to show red eyes glaring.

"**Don't** act like you know me old man because as far as I'm concerned nothings changed about me…nothing." He lowered Sarutobi down by this point and put his goggles back on.

Sarutobi simply looked at the troubled young man and felt nothing but pity for him. Being given a part of something he never asked for, and now a certain part of him is becoming more prevalent now as time goes by. Yes, Sarutobi knew of Naruto's case, but regardless he feels the boy is much stronger than he lets on to believe. He has the ability to end the conflict within him, the only thing, however, is whether Naruto wants to end it or not.

"Naruto" Sarutobi said as he walked closer to the boy. Naruto turned to face him, but this time the goggles were back on and it would make what Sarutobi have to say less meaningful.

"Naruto when I see you I see two men: the man you **are**, and the man you **will** be. Someday those two men will meet and they'll make the man you **ought** to be. The super hero that you are but don't see it yet." Naruto looked away from the Prime Minister's eyes as they always seemed to intimidate him. It was just something about the old man that made him literally unbearable when he lectured you. That it wasn't just babbling, but something much deeper than that. Naruto would never understand the geezer.

"Do you want to know what I found in the Underground or not." Sarutobi walked over to a chair and sat down.

"Regale me." Replied the old man waiting for Naruto's report.

"Apparently certain thugs made a deal about procuring a whole lotta' explosives to make this city a war zone, good thing is they never got the rest of their package."

"Who gave them the explosives?"

"Deidara, apparently he escaped out of prison unbeknownst to you."

"Oh no we knew, it's just we didn't let this get out to the public. What he did last week at Tokyo harbor was just terrible. The panic that ensued was uncontrollable, we're just trying to make things more manageable." Sarutobi recalled when Deidara destroyed a whole barge last week, and not only that he ran aground another one making all the goods aboard fall into the sea. Cars were mostly in the crates and they were heading for the States, but of course that all changed.

"So you think lying to the people is a lot better than telling the truth?" Naruto questioned as the Prime Minister took another swig of his sake.

"Just continue with what you know." And with that Naruto continued on with his story.

"They told me a new target was chosen for their operation, the American Embassy. I'm not sure if that was just something to tell me or if it was legit."

"Regardless we will take measures as seriously as we can." Sarutobi then sat up and again headed for the bar.

"Can I interest you in a drink?" Sarutobi offered as he got himself another sake.

"You don't need to give me a drink to get my interest, just make sure you do your part in upping security around the city." Naruto then walked over to the window where he entered from. He looked down to see if that girl he saw before was still there but she wasn't.

By now the hotel was getting cleaned up from the festivities tonight and that meant everyone was either leaving or had left. Naruto turned around to face Sarutobi once again.

"Listen I don't care if you get the police involved in this or any other super. Just make sure that I don't get slowed down by them alright." Naruto said this as he stepped onto the ledge outside the window.

"You have my word that I'll make sure that you aren't burdened by anyone." Sarutobi lifted his sake bottle in a gesture of agreement to Naruto.

Naruto saw the smile on the old man's face and simply stated, "No wonder why your son thinks you are annoying." He leapt down from the ledge as soon as he said that.

This did nothing to deter the old man's mood as Sarutobi just stood there, took another swig of sake, and kept on smiling. Despite the amount of work that needed to be done in a short amount of time, he had no worries about the future. However, there was still some doubt left in his mind, but it was subsided with another swig of sake.

* * *

Sasuke and Ino came crashing in through the door literally hanging on to one another; both their lips were meshed together and they were idling themselves toward the bed. Ino had wrapped her legs around Sasuke's waist and, to him, she felt seemingly weightless. That thought though didn't occur to him as he was too busy worshipping the female at hand for the moment.

In a swift second Sasuke had Ino on the bed, and he started planting kisses all along her neck. Ino let out a breathy moan and tightened her grip on Sasuke's waist. It then occurred to Sasuke that this girl was quite stronger than she looked as an irritating pain came when she squeezed.

Ino took this as an initiative and swapped the positioning. Now she was on top and the Uchiha millionaire/genius/super-hero was under her. She leaned in close to his face and gave him a seductive look and made a scene of licking her lips. Sasuke wanted so badly to kiss those lips again so he brought his head up to do so, but Ino leaned away to tease him more.

"Nuh-uh" She stated as she shook her head "Tonight **I'm **in control Liger."

Sasuke was about to protest about this, but for a very brief moment he saw Ino's eyes flash purple, or so he thought. All he knew was that whether he saw it or not he calmed down right after, and just let Ino do what she wanted. Ino then bent over and blew on Sasuke's ear for a few moments before sending out her tongue to lick his lobe. This sent shivers down Sasuke's spine, and even more so when she started to nip and nibble at him.

Sasuke's hands traveled all over Ino's body: From her hair releasing it from its pony-tail, to her back, to her hips, and finally resting on her firm ass. He gave her a squeeze and this sanctioned another breathy gasp from the blonde-haired reporter. At this she started to grind on Sasuke even more making his arousal very unbearable.

Ino started to trail her tongue from Sasuke's ear back over to his lips where she captured them in another kiss. This time it was Sasuke that she would daze as she wrestled with his tongue and made sure to get the better of him. Sasuke was never one to be submissive so he fought back and drove Ino's tongue from his mouth into hers. However, Ino at that moment nipped down at Sasuke's tongue and trapped it within her teeth. When she did this she continued to torture his tongue, but then also started to undo his shirt.

Her hands then started to explore Sasuke's toned body as she got down and started to kiss down Sasuke's lips toward his neck. Sasuke groaned in pleasure as he felt Ino's lips on the sensitive area of his body, and also the weight that he felt on his bare chest aroused him even more.

After spending an ample amount of time in his neck Ino moved even lower so as to toy with Sasuke's nipples. She took the left one in her mouth as teased the right one with her hand. By now Sasuke's shirt was off and Ino had undone the straps that were holding up her black, tight-fitting dress. Sasuke looked down at Ino and was glad to see she was starting to undo her dress; he never really was one for patience.

Sasuke kicked off his shoes and brought Ino's head once more and gave her another passionate kiss. Ino ran her hands around Sasuke's body and made her way down to his belt. Sasuke in the meantime also made a case for her dress as he slipped it off right past her breasts this time. They weren't overly large, but they definitely weren't small either. As he cupped them they overflowed his hands and Ino returned the favor by swirling her tongue in his mouth. That was not all she did though, as she slipped her hand down and unzipped Sasuke's pants. As her hands went and toyed with Sasuke's arousal Ino pulled away once again and gave him another smirk.

"You're evil" He said as he finding hard to even form a coherent thought.

"Like you're not enjoying it." She replied as at this moment she decided to remove the last vestiges of her dress, taking it off to reveal the light purple pair of panties she had on.

She leaned over Sasuke once again, still toying with his dick, and started to rub her body all over his. She made certain as she went down her breasts were tightly squeezed against his chest. As she made it to his left nipple once again she gave it one last lick before she placed her own on top of his. She rubbed for a few moments before Sasuke got his right hand and squeezed Ino's left breast. She moaned at the attention, and continued her journey down towards Sasuke's waist.

Sasuke had his breath caught in his throat and he couldn't breathe. He never remembered another time when a woman was so forceful with him, or so controlling. As Ino got to the waistband of his pants she was starting to take them off which he helped her do as well. Now all that was left between the two of them was Sasuke's pair of boxers which were at the moment very constricting. That all changed when Ino decided to remove those as well.

As she was eying his piece she looked back up at Sasuke. All he did was say "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Ino just gave him another smirk and replied "I wanna see your reaction when I do this…"

Ino's tongue came from her mouth and licked from the underside of his dick all the way to the tip. She swirled it around there agonizingly slow watching as Sasuke squirmed underneath her. She smiled at this and then started to kiss the crown, then all over as Sasuke was having a hard time to actually focus on anything.

In an instant Ino captured Sasuke's dick within her mouth and she started bobbing slowly up and down upon it. Sasuke's vision went blurry with all the pleasure and he started to thrust inside her mouth as well. Sasuke's dick was big enough for its size, but Ino just relaxed her throat and got all the way down to the base. All the while Ino's own sex was becoming very aroused by this as her panties were becoming soaked with juices. Here she had an idea.

Ino removed her panties and released Sasuke from her grip as she got up and positioned herself so that Sasuke had access to her pussy and she his dick. Classic 69 and it made Sasuke all the more aroused. He sent his hands up and brought Ino's thick and strong hips down so he could finally make her squirm as she did him. At this Ino moaned in pleasure and clamped Sasuke's dick within her large breasts. As she was rubbing them both together she sent out her tongue again to tease the tip.

Sasuke groaned and increased his efforts to pleasure the woman. As his tongue was tormenting her pussy his hands felt up her ass, running along the crack to her tail-bone. Ino kept up her licking until she returned to her sucking, this time with the occasional use of her teeth scraping along the sides of his penis. Sasuke groaned at the attention, but only thrust his tongue deeper into her pussy as he felt Ino was close to the end; Ino, as well, figured Sasuke was wearing down.

Ino came first and as she did she squeezed Sasuke's head in between her thighs and clamped her teeth down on his dick. Sasuke lapped up the juices and this added excitement threw him over the edge as well. Ino just took it all and swallowed with no hesitation.

Ino here decided to sit herself up and catch her breath for a few moments; the only thing was she didn't remove herself from Sasuke first. So as Ino was sitting up her ass cheeks were pressed onto Sasuke's face. She paid no attention to it until Sasuke squirmed under her and she felt it. Ino merely looked and gave Sasuke another smile with added pressure from her ass to his face.

"What's the matter Liger aren't you enjoying this?" Ino said as she wiggled her ass once more; Sasuke's face was either red from anger or the lack of oxygen, either way it put a smile on Ino's face. To see Japan's hottest playboy and most popular super-hero under her squirming, being submissive, was just too funny.

Sasuke just looked up from his position and inwardly asked himself if this woman wasn't just a dominatrix in disguise; she just loved sexually torturing him. His mouth was enveloped by her ass and his nose was right where her crack began. He could get out of the position, but he didn't want to end up hurting her or something, he just wanted her to get off of him. That, however, was a problem in that her ass was not only thick but powerful as well, but Sasuke had a thought to finally turn the tables.

As Ino was sitting atop Sasuke and stroking his dick once more her eyes again flashed purple and a slight throbbing came. This made her stop her stroking and an array of pictures flashed in her head. It was too quick to realize, but she picked up on a cop chase that went into the Underground. Another was a confrontation between Kunoichi and some American cop who was not afraid of her at all, and another where a group of thugs were hung up in a garage and were all burnt to a crisp by someone. As Ino was trying to focus more on the person that was shrouded by flame in her vision something broke her concentration.

Sasuke's tongue came from his mouth and started licking the inside of Ino' ass cheeks; he made his way up to the crack and also started licking there. It wasn't a nasty taste but most mostly salty from the sweat. In fact, Ino smelled quite good, a mixture of peaches and cream, probably soap or something.

"Oh God Sasuke you bastard!" Ino yelled in annoyance at what he just interrupted, but from his point of view he thought she liked it.

Sasuke continued his licking and found that Ino was loosening up her grip. He was pushing her off and nipped at her butt as he did. Sasuke was then finally free from his sweaty prison and got Ino on all fours at the end of the bed. Ino was literally right on the edge until Sasuke came from behind and pulled her up.

"You're quite the Amazon in bed aren't you?" He asked as he spread her legs a bit more.

"Now it's time for me to pay you back for what you did." And right as he s said this he thrust into her from behind.

His hands went up to cup her breasts and he started suckling her neck. Sasuke went in gently at first, but with more urging from Ino he speeded up his pace. Ino then grabbed his head and tilted it toward hers. They both came together in a flurry and kissed passionately. Sasuke pace began to get even faster with Ino matching him from every step of the way. It was here where they felt a familiar feeling and rushed to feel the pleasure once more.

"Oh God…Oh God Sasuke I'm coming!!" With that Ino came for the second time that night and soon Sasuke as well.

They both fell from entangled with one another and were breathing heavily. The exhaustion that was coming over them was unbearable. Truly Ino made this night unforgettable for Sasuke, but in the end it wasn't the sex that Ino was thinking about. It was the vision she had during the lovemaking that kept her awake. Truth be told she was getting little hints at this vision all night even at the awards ceremony, but she just wrote them off as a little localized thing.

When she saw the cops in the vision she figured she shouldn't worry about it as they will take care of it. Also, Kunoichi was there as well so things are basically all okay, right? Apparently her vision didn't show her the reason for the chase or the whereabouts of the criminal thug's base. But the super-heroine named Nirvana didn't bother with that thought. All she could really ponder about was the man whom she witnessed in a burning building at the very end of her dream.

All she could really make out was a dark red leather suit with belts, chains, and all the rest. As soon as she was about to drift off however, another sequence of her vision came back and again this man appeared. He was surrounded by flames and was facing away from her. But, when she had figured the vision was almost over the man turned. His face was lighted up by the flames around her and she was able to make out three scars on each cheek, black goggles, and a sadistic smile she thought she would never see again. With blazing red eyes and fiery blonde hair she was startled at what she saw.

Firefox, self-proclaimed hero, publicly stated madman, has returned….


	4. Good Morning?

Wuzzup, here with a new chapter. Now listen, even though there are SasuSaku implications here, they are not a couple, this is NaruSaku mainly with other pairs. This is just basically me trying to be a good author and thickening the characters relationships with one another. You may see some ups and downs along the way but ya just have to go with the flow.

**Good Morning?**

_I stand atop the building, the rain pouring down over me. I see hundreds of people looking up where I am and see the desperation, the hurt…the fear in their eyes. I then look at the girl who is literally dangling from my hand. I clench around her wrist so as to not lose my grip in the wetness of the rain coming down. _

_The only thing I ever noticed with this girl is her golden brown eyes looking into mine not with fear, but with pity._

_Why on earth does she pity me? I deserve none as far as I'm concerned._

_I try to move the possibly nineteen year old over to the ledge, but something stops me. I try harder but my body wasn't following my orders. Then I hear the people shouting something; it's inaudible at first, but soon you could hear it through the thunder racking the city._

_"Save us, save us!?" they shouted._

_I looked down at them with disgust and disdain. Who are they to ask such a thing from me? _

_And then it happened so quickly, suddenly. The weight of the girl suddenly left my hands and soon I saw her body tumbling to the ground. She didn't scream though, all she did was look back up to me with those eyes._

_Even after she hit the pavement the people still screamed "Save us!!" _

_I simply looked down at them and in a whisper inaudible to all but me I said"No"_

Naruto woke with a start in his bed, his pillow case and bed sheets covered in sweat. Naruto couldn't believe this dream he had; it's been going on for the past few weeks.

He got up from the bed and sat on the edge with his face in his hands contemplating what he just saw. Normally one would forget their dreams the minute they woke up. This is in part due to the state you are when asleep is different than the one when you're awake. Dreams are simply a multitude of emotions bombarding the senses, and when they do they produce pictures. Naruto never was one for stuff like interpreting dreams, but this one was not only constant but scary.

The fact that he denied all those people from saving was not as bad as letting that poor girl fall to her death. Who was she, he didn't even know. Was she significant in anything or was it his mind trying to tell him something about himself?

Naruto knew that his significant "other" was becoming a hassle to control, but the thing is what else could he do about it? He knew that there was no room for weakness in a person in his position. The only way for all the thugs and vigilantes in this city to understand is to hurt them and hurt them bad. To him there was only right and wrong, black and white; no grey areas.

The thing is that this is how the world is, and how it will always be. To Naruto, those who cannot adapt will be left all alone and it is up to him to save them.

That is the thing that scares him the most. That denying all the people in his dream from saving was not only cruel, but simply evil.

Naruto glanced at the clock to see what time it was.

"Five o'clock." He muttered

He got up from the bed and headed into the hallway of his seriously run-down, haphazard house. It wasn't comfortable but that wasn't what Naruto wanted. He wanted a place that symbolized his life and the way he pictures society; that hardship and harsh living was eminent everywhere and all the time.

He was never one for the high-life because he never allowed himself to be dragged into the people's Cinderella syndrome. That's basically what it was. You sold yourself out for a night and once the clock strikes midnight and you head home, everything you lied about at the party, get-together, meeting, or wherever, falls apart.

It is only in your own home where you are honest about yourself whether it's intentional or not. The one place where you can express yourself any way you want. That's why Naruto chose this house in a lousy part in a disgusting city.

He headed into his bathroom and walked over to his shower, wanting to wash away all the sweat from the dream he envisioned.

As he turned on the water Naruto felt a mild headache creeping up on him. For some reason he figured this was going to be a boring day.

* * *

Frank awoke to the sound of his alarm clock and grumbled at the incessant buzzing. Without even opening his eyes he tried to palm the sleep button on the clock but his attempts were very poor. The first try he completely missed the nightstand, the next he hit the radio but wasn't even close to the button, and the last saw him knock off his glass of water. The ensuing shatter woke him immediately much to his reluctance.

Frank opened his eyes and instead of pushing the sleep button he just pulled out the electrical chord instead. The buzzing stopped and Frank was left alone again with stiff silence that was only broken by the noise outside.

Trying to fight off the sleep that was coming back over him Frank had gotten up from bed, with his bones cracking and popping, and went to the window to look at his street. He glanced down to see that Mr. Chiba had already set up his fruit stand for the ensuing day, and that Mrs. Tanaka was out watering her Japanese peace lilies. Frank smiled at the scene as it seemed so peaceful and simply so easy.

The sun was arching over the tops of the houses but it still did not lighten up the sky yet as it probably was around quarter to seven. Despite his guess Frank wanted to be sure about the time so if it was early enough he could snag a few more minutes of sleep.

As he came to his clock/radio he plugged the darn thing back in and saw that the red numbers flashed 6:30. It was too late to go to sleep but then again too early to do anything.

"Whatever" Frank said as he stretched.

He walked to his closet as he figured he might as well get dressed for the day. He pulled out his white buttoned shirt and flipped it on with no problem. Then the beige pants came on along with his socks. Finally Frank grabbed his black tie and put it without any trouble at all, because this is basically a ritual he does in the morning. He's been doing for the past five years and it still hasn't had a hitch yet.

Now as some would look at Frank and see his beige pants, overcoat, and hat they would not have ever thought he was cop here. With all the proud and proper uniforms that the TDP (Tokyo Police Department) is supposed to wear Frank sticks out like a sore thumb. Here in Japan he looks more like some gangster from the forties than he does a cop.

Frank never had a special reason to wear the ensemble he put together, but the thing is that now it's like he can't do anything without it. The damn coat and hat have become more of a symbol to him than the damn badge he carries. To him it was like the badge just showed what he did for a living, but the hat, pants, and all the rest showed what kind of person he is. He was old-fashioned, was one to play by the rules but figured you could bend them every once in a while, and that he was a protector.

Well, maybe that last part isn't exactly what you would see when you look at him, but that is what Frank hoped people would notice. You didn't have to be a superhero to be a "hero", for that concept wholly depends upon the person. Anyone of us has the ability to be a hero it's just what we do that dictates whether we are a "hero" or a villain, because as every one of us has the ability to be a hero we can also be a vigilante as well.

To Frank though, there can always be a little grey area between the two that can be distinguishable. It's not exactly a "hero" parse, but it's not truly a villain either. It is something completely different but not so much so as to make it unreadable. For Frank to be in this area is to be completely and utterly "human" at its very best; to be flawed but not imperfect either. Here is where one can transcend the definition of a "hero" in today's society and become a true symbol that is more relatable and intimate with the people than the caped-crusaders.

As Frank looked himself over he figured he would leave the coat and the hat for when he left the house, but for now he was fine the way he was. He pulled back the screen door to his room and stepped into the hallway. Frank walked down it and got to the staircase, but not before looking back toward his niece Jenny's room. He wondered if she was still asleep, but the noise of moving plates and the smell of food cooking gave him his answer.

Frank walked down the stairs and came into the kitchen to see his now seventeen year-old niece cooking him nice old-fashioned eggs and bacon in the pan. The kitchen was pretty small with a round table in the middle; a counter goes from the back wall leading to the door to the left of the table. A fridge was position where the counter ended to make room for the monster that Frank calls a fridge. Really it was just like any other Japanese kitchen with a little Westernization.

"Morning kiddo" Frank stated as Jenny turned to see her uncle sitting at the table.

"Mornin' Uncle Frank, how d'you sleep last night?" She said as she placed the eggs on Frank's plate.

"All right, I hope I didn't wake you when I came in?"

"No you didn't." Jenny flashed Frank a chipper smile that just made him smile as well.

Jenny was a beautiful girl and looked very mature for her age. She had medium length brown hair and entrancing golden-brown eyes and already in her school uniform. Frank couldn't ever imagine how she got so much more womanly over the years, it was crazy. She was such a cute kid, but it made Frank wonder if she ever thought about her parents back home. Of course she probably did, but ever since the divorce it probably is just depressing looking back on them.

Now it wasn't that her parents didn't love **her** or anything, it was just they didn't love **each** **other**. Over the years Frank could see that his sister and brother-in-law looked less like a married couple and more like cordial acquaintances. There was no yelling involved or amorous behavior; they just didn't see each other in the same light anymore. When he asked his sister Marie what happened she just replied "We're friends and that's all it is to it".

Even though Jenny's mom and dad still looked out for her and each other sometimes, Jenny still felt the depression that comes whenever children see their parents divorce. She felt as though it was her fault that they left each other, or that maybe it was the way they acted so nice to each other even after the divorce angered her. She couldn't find a reason as to why they left each other if they acted so nice all the time. Maybe if they screamed or argued it would have been better as the way they handled it confused her and made her more upset.

She was the one that vouched that she lives with her Uncle Frank. Of course her parents were more than a little upset with this, and his sister Marie was literally heartbroken when she heard that. All in all though here Jenny was in Japan with her uncle and seemingly having a blast at what Frank thought. The move from the States irked her a bit in the beginning, but Jenny hung in there and with her new friends here in Japan, she still talks with her pals in the U.S. also.

"_The wonders of the computer." _Frank thought as he munched on his toast.

However, something caught his attention that made him stop completely from eating as glanced over at Jenny's behind. No he wasn't checking out his niece, but he definitely was checking out a certain piece of clothing that didn't sit well with Frank.

Losing his appetite Frank got up to clean his plate. As he got closer to Jenny he was in fact right in his thoughts before. The article of clothing was exactly what he thought it was and it grossed him out. He placed the plate down in the sink and said "Now what do we have here?"

"What's that uncle?" Jenny said, but as soon as she did Frank grabbed the top part of her thong pulled it up let go.

"Ow what was that for?" Jenny exclaimed as she turned around in shock.

"Simple, when did thongs become part of school dress code?" Frank asked grabbing his coffee from the table.

"Uncle, come on this is nothing."

"Nothing! Tell that to all the boys who are gonna be pitchin' a tent whenever they look at you." Jenny crossed her arms when her uncle said that. It just sounded so corny and nasty at the same time.

"I'm not doing this to attract boys if that's what you're thinking."

"Really then why are you doing this?" Frank feigned to put his hand behind his ear to listen at what his niece had to say about this incident.

Jenny was a bit flustered when her uncle asked her this and didn't quickly respond. Frank arched his eyebrow and gave her a questioning look.

"Okay, okay" Jenny said finally relenting.

"I don't want to get panty lines okay that's it." When Frank heard this he pretended to throw up.

Jenny just glared at him and responded "Oh grow up."

"Oh I need to grow up miss "I don't want panty lines". Come on gimme a break." Frank smiled at her as if he knew there was a motive behind Jenny's choice in under garments.

"I'm seventeen years old don't you think I deserve a little leeway?"

"You want some leeway okay, and then let's see..." Jenny still had her arms crossed listening reluctantly at what her uncle had to say.

"You will not where a thong until your fifty-two."

"No, wait what?"

"Thirty four"

"No"

Frank was looking at her and saw a smug look on her face.

_"Oh no she aint bargaining with this." _Frank thought to himself.

"Twenty-eight and a half"

"Noo!" Jenny shook her head as he said this

"Twenty-one and that's reasonable."

"Nooooo!!"

"You're not getting away with this one Jenny."

"To hell I'm not." Jenny said keeping up with her uncle every step of the way

"Twenty"

"Eighteen" Jenny stated.

All of a sudden a car was heard beeping outside. Jenny looked outside the window and smiled as she saw Kenshi drive up in his silver Honda. She smiled a little and Frank saw this.

"Aw hell nah, twenty!"

"Nineteen"

"Twenty and is the guy outside the person you're trying to impress."

"No "father" that's only Kenshi you met him before."

"Yeah and I still don't like him. Twenty!"

"Nineteen and you're gonna make us both late."

"He can wait and besides it's only around quarter a seven."

"No it's seven thirty and I wasn't talking about me and **him** I was talking about **you **and me. You can't keep unplugging the clock and plugging it back in it messes the time up."

"I know that and my offer still stands at twenty." Frank was the one that shrugged his arms and looked at his niece.

Jenny didn't know what to do. By the way this was going it could last all morning if they had the chance, but Jenny knew better. Her uncle was persistent just as much as she was; maybe that's where she got it from.

"Okay fine I won't wear them until I'm twenty."

"There we go."

"But I get to wear it for today okay." As Jenny said that she went over and picked up her backpack and a waffle from the toaster.

"Bye Uncle Frank I love you even though you're childish and all." With that she gave a peck on the cheek and walked out the door toward Kenshi's car.

"Yeah well those eggs were burnt you know that." Frank said after her when she left the kitchen.

Jenny went over to the car and got in quickly. She gave Kenshi a smile and she said "Morning".

"Morning" He whispered back and leaned over to give her a kiss.

She leaned over as well they both met in the middle. The kiss was quick but was the kind that was between two teenagers that are in puppy-love. As they pulled away Jenny gave Kenshi a seductive look and pulled up her thong to show him.

"You like?" she asked

"Very" he said and leaned in for another kiss.

As they kissed again they were interrupted by "that guy" as Kenshi calls him.

"Ohhh so you're gonna be late for school huh?" Both teenagers broke away and Jenny scowled at her uncle standing in the front doorway of their house.

"Well you know that deal we had? Let's make it sixty-five how's that sound?!" Frank said.

"Damn when are you gonna get girl friend uncle jeez?"

"When you start wearing pantyhose, now go!" Kenshi needed nothing else to drive off so that is what he did.

"He still protective over you huh?"

"You saw didn't you?" Jenny said as she glanced back at Kenshi.

"But you know he means well, right? It's not like he wants you to not have fun." Kenshi replied.

"I just don't get why he has to be like that, he's twenty-seven for god-sakes. You'd think he'd be a little more understanding?" Jenny said in return and she turned on the radio.

"Your uncle's a nice person even though he's "that guy" that watches over you. He's just doing his part." Kenshi looked at Jenny to giver her an understanding look.

"How did you get so understanding?" Jenny replied as he went over to give him another kiss.

Kenshi obliged happily. He slowed the car down and this time he didn't mind sending his tongue out to hers. Jenny opened her mouth and let her tongue engage as well. It was getting quite steamy until Jenny's cell rang. They both stopped and Jenny looked down defeated and got her phone for her bag.

"Hello?"

"Stop kissing, I know you guys are, it's disgusting, just please go to school." The voice of her uncle came.

"Oh my God you're such a creep." Jenny closed her phone shut and slammed it back into her bag.

Kenshi just laughed a little and continued to drive off and head into the main street.

Frank put back his own cell phone and continued to walk back inside, but as he did he started thinking about what the hell happened this morning.

_"Remember when she used to wear footy pajamas to bed and watch wrestling with you Frank, because I sure as hell am finding a hard time to?_ Frank thought as he walked back into the kitchen, up the stairs, through the hallway, and into his room.

As he walked back to his closet he pulled out his beige overcoat and hat and donned them. He looked at the mirror and looked hard at himself.

"Good morning Frank? You got some stuff to do today my friend, are you ready?" He said as he looked himself over

As Frank did this for some reason he felt like this day was going to be quite interesting.

* * *

The sun invaded a dark room which had its blinds closed. It was meant to keep the sun's gaze from peeping in and ruining a good sleep. However, the sun was no fool in that it delved it shine through the cracks in the blinds and went on through. Ino awoke to a solitary ray shining on her bleach blonde hair and gave her misty blue eye a nice sheen to it.

As Ino rose from the bed she was not one for modesty as she let the bed sheet flow over her naked form. She was too tired to be care for something such as that and besides, it wasn't as if anyone was in the room with her at the moment. She looked down next to her and instead of a sleeping playboy she saw nothing but ruffled sheets.

"Hmph, doesn't even have the decency of saying good morning huh?" Ino huffed as she got up from the bed.

As she scanned the room for her clothes she couldn't help but look around at the different pictures and objects Sasuke had in his room. She started walking around her eyes went over to the edge of the bed where she found her panties. Ino picked them up and slid them on, but it wasn't as if it did anything to conceal.

After a few moments of squandering the room she came across her bra and the rest of her clothes. As Ino was dressing up her eyes went to a poster of The Who that Sasuke hung on the right side of the bed; her eyes also caught a guitar in the corner and a bunch of amps as well.

"Well who knew that Liger was a musician, I should've asked for a song last night?" Ino said to herself examining the guitar.

However, another thing caught Ino's eye and this prompted her to go over to Sasuke dresser drawer and look at the pictures placed atop it. Most were of Sasuke with a few of the prominent people the world had to offer, including one where he sat with the Dalai Lama when he came to Japan. Perusing through the photos though, she stopped when she saw one not like the rest. It was placed at the back of the dresser and was covered in dust.

Picking it up and examining it further Ino saw that a little boy that looked exactly like Sasuke was sitting on the lap of some woman that almost looked like him. The lady in the picture was quite beautiful and had the same piercing eyes as Sasuke did. Ino then evaluated that this woman had to be Sasuke's mother.

Looking down in sadness she recalled the day when she heard that the wife of the CEO of Uchiha Corps had died due to the hepatitis the doctors said she had gotten. After that everything seemed to go downhill for the Uchiha family with the falling out of Itachi, former heir to the company. Ino couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness toward the boy that turned into the man he was now. Sasuke even though having everything missed a component in his life that made him so blasé towards life.

Suddenly a knock on the door broke Ino reverie and she turned her head in surprise. From the other side of the door she heard a woman's voice call to her.

"Excuse me Miss Yamanaka, are you still here?" said the voice.

"Oh yes, I'll be out in a minute hold on." Ino replied back.

She placed the picture down and proceeded to place her dress back on. In a way it kind of irked her that this girl, whoever she was, was badgering her like this. For god-sakes give her at least some time to get presentable and whatever, but no, this woman wanted her out of here quick. Why? Is she afraid that Sasuke was falling for her and this girl was jealous? Yes of course, that had to be the reason. (Ino gets very cranky in the morning)

As Ino flung open the door she was met with a pair of emerald green eyes.

"Hello Ms. Yamanaka, I'm Sakura Haruno and Mr. Uchiha would like for me to tell you he's sorry for his absence this morning, but he has some important work to get done." Sakura stated in the most polite manner.

Ino eyed the girl up and down and saw that she basically had the same proportions as her, except her breasts were a little bit smaller. Sakura caught this and raised her eyebrow in a "why are you checking me out" kind of stare. Ino just leaned up against the doorway and stretched, making sure to emphasize her breasts being larger and said, "Well I'm surprised he was able to get up so early, I mean, it wasn't as if we got any sleep."

Ino sneered at the comment she made and wanted to see the reaction the other girl would have at this.

"Well I'm sure he had more important things to do this morning." Sakura said trying to maintain her rising annoyance.

"Yeah then what are you, his servant? Does he make you cook and clean?" Ino remarked back at the girl.

"That and occasionally taking out the trash." Ino just glared at Sakura, thinking what nerve this girl had.

_"Oh it's on now!" _Ino thought seeing that the girl had some fight in her.

"Well just know that your employer is quite the man to be had in bed if you hadn't had the pleasure in-"

"No I haven't had the pleasure or the urge to pursue **that, **now if you'll excuse me I'd like to keep my breakfast down." Sakura said trying to brush off this highly conceited girl.

"Oh that is a shame, maybe you should do something about that forehead of yours it's quite "noticeable" if you ask me."

"I didn't ask you" and with that Sakura held up Ino's shoes to her face.

"Now if you don't mind Ms. Yamanaka I have more important business to take care of this morning than cross playful banter with you. Mr. Uchiha has already arranged for you to be taken home with his limo which is waiting out front." Ino was quite surprised she didn't get the reaction she thought she would from the girl; apparently she was different in a way.

"Very well then, I have work to do as well. Now, if you don't mind I would like to know where the door is." Ino asked as she unceremoniously snatched her shoes from the other girl's grip.

"Down the hall to the right you can't miss it."

"Thank you" Just about when Ino was making her way down the hall she turned back to Sakura and said "Oh and by the way, don't you think you're a little old to be having pink highlights? Sayonara forehead."

_"Pink highlights? What is she…Oh NO!!" _Sakura thought as she rushed over to a mirror situated right next to her.

Much to her chagrin that pig was right in pointing out that her hair had indeed pink blotches all over it.

_"Stupid hair dye is wearing off again; they said it lasts a month. Damn liars and their freaking advertising!" _Sakura thought over as she examined her hair.

This brought a pride-filled smirk to Ino face seeing as she struck a nerve with her last comment. Apparently this Sakura woman was a little self-conscious about that pink coloring of hers. Oh well, it's not like Ino had to worry about her hair as it was perfect because she made it that way.

_"A little sad one would have to resort to such ways to garner attention." _Ino mused about her newfound opponent's hair tricks.

As Ino was making her way to the door she turned back to look inside the Uchiha manor. It was very much modernized and expensive looking from what she could see, but it wasn't as if she saw any of it last night. With one last glance she opened the door to the house and left.

"Good evening Miss, where would your destination be this morning?" asked the limo driver immediately after she stepped outside.

"Oh, uhh, home thank you, on 27 Yatsuo."

"Of course" said the driver as he opened the limo door for her.

Ino entered the limo with shoes in hand and let herself relax in the cool dark of the limousine. She rested her head against the back seat and closed her eyes for a bit, but she was interrupted due to a beep that startled her. Wondering where the beep came from she waited again and wondered what it could be, until she heard it again. This time she realized it was coming from the small jacket she wore at the Rising Sun Awards last night. The beep came again and this time Ino had a thought at what it could be.

Ino grabbed the jacket and rummaged through the pockets to get at her cell phone. During her looking she felt the limo start to move and figured that it was making its way back into the city. Ino then grabbed her cellular and wondered who it could be that had called her. She found it was her mom and that she called not once but a few times at that. Upon looking at the time of the calls she saw it came from late last night.

"_Wonder what the problem is?" _Ino inwardly asked herself dialing her mom's number and waiting for her to pick up.

It was a few rings later that Ino heard the familiar and comforting voice of her mother again.

"Hello?" asked her mother.

"Hey mom it's me, is everything all right?"

"Oh Ino, me and your father saw you last night on the television; did a great job as usual honey." Her mother said back to Ino.

"Yeah thanks mom but you called three times last night, is everything okay?" Ino asked again a little perturbed her mom didn't give her an answer.

"What? Oh right, can you believe that some idiot crashed his car into the flower shop last night." This sent pangs of surprise through Ino as she felt a sense of déjà vu.

"WHAT? Are you kidding me; both you and dad are all right, yeah?"

"Oh yes dear we're fine. Your father was so angry when he got the call from the police though. Such a damn shame but really what can you do about it. I told him not to set up the shop in that place/" Her mother's sort of relaxed attitude surprised her and decided it would be better if she talked to her parents face to face.

"Listen mom I'm coming over in a little bit okay." Ino told her mother.

"No Ino you've got to go to work today. Trust me, everything is fine here, I just called you because I got a little excited."

"No mom I'm coming over and that's final." Ino shut her phone and and rubbed her temples.

Despite her mother's reassurance, Ino wanted to go and see her parents just to go over the situation. This certainly would put a damper on business if the damage was bad enough. Wait a minute, of course it was bad enough, and everything that went wrong in the Underground was bad enough. Ino just shook her head and knocked on the window that separated the driver from the passenger.

"Yes miss" replied the driver while setting the window down.

"Excuse me but, would you mind instead taking me to Kamimeguro 2 chome?"

"Very well then ma'am we should be arriving there shortly then."

"Thank you" the window then closed back up again which left Ino staring at her from the reflection of the window.

At this Ino turned away not really wanting to look at herself from last night's affair. She blushed at having to remember what she did, what he did and it made her more immature than ever. The thing is that even though Ino was a woman in every which way physically, she still didn't get the reassurance mentally in her actions. She wanted to feel that sense of control in her life that she sees in her mother. It's to have the ability to say "I'm a woman" without having to giggle at the thought. In reality it seemed Ino was a little more like an over-grown brat than anything.

The greatest thing that keeps her up at night is the wonder if she will ever understand herself more than her parents do; will she ever grow more mentally. These thoughts plagued her mind for quite sometime, but they didn't deter her from her actions. Even though Ino thought one thing she acted in another way.

She thought that being a super-hero would be the thing that would help her get some perspective; however it just made things more complicated for her. All the things she saw as Nirvana made the world a lot darker than what she originally thought it was. In a way that helped her mature in that she finally shed the ignorance that everyone seems to have of their surroundings. Facing the darkness helped her a lot in understanding the darker recesses of the human mind, and her mind-reading of her victims gave her knowledge into how sick some people can be.

And here comes another lapse of her immaturity. The fact that she sees the dark and knows how dangerous it could be only makes it more appealing to her. Where a sane person would recognize danger and step away, her curiosity forces her to go forward. But she was a super-hero right (sorry super-heroine) and she was supposed to fight against normal fears and step out of social norms. If the fact that being brave is what makes her immature, then you could say all super-heroes are immature in a way.

Some do it for fame, others for glory, and sometimes others do it just because they want to. All of these things aren't necessarily bad, but is that how a hero should be?

Ino shook her head in confusion and continued to space out from the world. Then a little smirk graced her lips and she said; "Good morning Ino, how're you feeling?"

She looked down at her cell phone which read 8:30.

"Confused" she said in replying to her question.

"Always confused."

* * *

Sakura headed downstairs into Sasuke's work studio bringing him some breakfast. She couldn't believe that her stupid hair dye gave out after a week. It only meant putting out more money for hair dye, and that wasn't exactly something that she felt like doing every month.

See the problem with some women is to stave off the effects of stress or age by dying their graying hair to the color they wish; for Sakura, it meant for the preservation of her very identity. The thing is with this certain woman is that she is Tokyo's mesmerizing Sakura Skye, and her pink hair is only one of her many attributes that she needs to hide. Her strength is one of them, which is ridiculously overpowered while looking at some other supers, and also her bright emerald eyes which garnered more unwanted attention than anything.

To be a part of something you never wanted to be is certainly a way for you to get angry. When it rains it pours with Sakura, and when it pours it takes all the hair dye from her hair.

"It's just going to be one of those days isn't it?" Sakura muttered incredulously under her breath.

Upon getting down the stairs Sakura found herself barred in by various worker tables either covered with blueprints or miscellaneous gadgets. In the far corner Sakura then found the reason for her trek down in the "dungeon" as she calls it.

Sasuke was away tinkering with his suit as usual; various sparks flying from the blow torch where he was welding a few crack in the body suit. And after this of course, he was going to polish the armor and buff it up so as to take the welding scar off the Iron Liger mech-suit.

"Did you take care of our little guest Miss Haruno?" Sasuke asked without even looking up from where he was working.

"Don't worry I took care of your little slut." Sakura slammed down the tray of food as she said this which brought Sasuke's attention.

"My, it seems you've had a pleasant morning. What happened didn't sleep well last night?"

"No as a matter of fact I didn't!" Sasuke looked at Sakura after her outburst and gave her a once over.

"You look good today Sakura, but ya got a little something in your hair, it's um.."

"I know what it is dammit!" Sakura blushed this time despite her best efforts.

The thing with Sasuke was is that even though he was an arrogant ass, he still had the ability to make her blush. Another thing with the playboy is that he was the only other person to know her secret. Of course it really doesn't take a whole lot to put two and two together; "Sakura"-"Sakura Skye".

Even though Sakura had a great many allies as Sakura Skye she made sure that her real-life identity was kept far away from the crime-fighter within her. She had other plans with her life anyway she figured, that once the city was tamed she would get on with the "real" life she so craved for.

"Is that food for me, thank you? I didn't have enough time to make my own breakfast this morning." Sasuke said nonchalantly as he continued working on the Iron Liger suit, now polishing the helmet which was designed in the appearance of a predatory cat.

"You never have time to make your own breakfast, and you have no consideration for me for that matter either!!" Sakura shouted again at Sasuke.

"Wait, what?" was all Sasuke could get out before Sakura went on a rant of disrespecting her or something.

"How the hell do you have the audacity to just leave me **and **Orochimaru at the damn hotel like that you bastard? Hell, if it wasn't for your father I doubt we would ever have gotten home." Sakura was fuming at this point, but Sasuke found it quite cute nonetheless,

_"Heh, she always looks cute when she gets angry."_ Sasuke thought while gazing at the woman in front of him.

"You know Sakura I doubt that you wouldn't have gotten a ride. The way you were looking last night I bet any eighty year-old billionaire would have picked you up." Sasuke said with a smug smile.

"You're a jackass you know that." Sakura stated as she was about to walk off.

When Sasuke saw this he found it in himself that maybe he should go easy on Sakura today. He got up from his seat and caught Sakura's arm.

"Hey, Sakura wait, please." Sasuke turned her around to face him.

Sakura just stared at him with those Jane-doe eyes and expected Sasuke to say something, but at first he didn't.

As soon as she was about to force her grip off him he beat her to the punch.

"You know why you're losing the color in your hair so fast?" Sakura just kept staring defiantly at Sasuke.

He grabbed both her shoulders and rubbed them comfortingly.

"It's because you worry too much. Maybe you need some time off from the hospital, just focus on-"

"Focus on what, being a super-hero? As if that's not stressful enough Sasuke." Sakura walked away from Sasuke and started to make her way back to the stairs.

Sasuke just stood there, but he didn't want Sakura to leave with a bad taste in her mouth.

"Sakura!?" Sasuke called out at the lady who just made it to the steps.

"Listen, if you feel like it tonight, how about we had out for a bite or something?" With this Sakura opened her eyes in amazement because not once had she ever remembered Sasuke asking her out. This was, in every sense of the word, interesting.

"I don't know Sasuke the hospital will have me on call and really I don't' want the reporters getting the wrong impression. You've always said-"

"To hell what I've said all right. We're going out whether you want to or not."

"But what about the city? You heard the reports this morning about the Underground cop chase and the burnt down garage. Things like this need **our **attention."

"This city can handle itself with only two heroes taking a break Sakura, so come on, what do you say?" Sasuke asked with his eye-brows arched waiting for an answer.

Despite Sakura's best efforts she finally shrugged her shoulders and said, "Okay Sasuke, just this once then." As Sakura finished this she disappeared up the stairs leaving Sasuke all alone again with his tools and his gadgets.

Sasuke walked over back to his Iron Liger mech-suit, and then back at the newspaper that he had been reading before getting to work. The main title on the front page was "**A Need for Speed in the Underground" **which went on to detail the story of a high-speed chase between some American cop and a teenage gang-member. Really uninteresting stuff.

The only thing that interested him was the garage that was blown to smithereens a few blocks down the scene of the accident, but that also wasn't really anything to worry about.

If there was one thing that Sasuke knew about his job it's that crime comes in different states of alarm; this was certainly nothing out of the ordinary in the Underground. Besides, a few people willing to talk to the Tokyo Journal said they possibly saw Kunoichi and some guy on a bike. The guy was most likely Dire Wolf, and if he and Kunoichi were both there on the scene then he and Sakura should have nothing to worry about.

Sasuke looked back at the Iron Liger suit again.

"Hn, I think I deserve a day off. What do you think?" Sasuke asked his suit as if it were going to respond back.

"I'll take your silence as a yes." Sasuke dropped the rag he was holding on the table and walked over to his breakfast.

If there was one other good thing he could say about Sakura it was she was a most excellent cook. Taking a bite out of his toast and scooping up some rice Sasuke felt that today should be one of rest and relaxation for him.

* * *

The Alchemist Bar almost always saw its fair share of usual thugs and vigilantes entering its confines. It was also because of there coming that brought such a good influx of fighters for Mizuki's chapter. The fact of the matter was that whether the Yakuza heads and petty time gang leaders acknowledged them or not, the fight club members were gaining power. Mizuki had them enact rituals to prove their worth and loyalty to the club because he wasn't forming a gang, but a family, a brotherhood. With the teachings passed down to them by their proprietor in America, Mizuki was creating a fully-functional army right under the noses of the TPD and crime lords themselves. It would only be a matter of time before Project Anarchy would take hold; all he had to do now was to lay low for a while. But for now, he would have to put up with the bickering the Yakuza heads all were doing in the backroom.

"What the hell are we supposed to do now that cops are patrolling the Underground!?" yelled Boss Hanzo across the table.

"There is no reason to worry." Replied Boss Kunimura.

All the clan heads looked at him with perplexity, but he just sat there with a calm face.

"What happened last night was a fluke. The gaijin in charge just jumped the gun, and we can expect that he won't do this again." Boss Kunimura added to his statement, but of course that was meant with a resounding uproar.

"Have you any idea as to how this cop came to Japan at all Boss Kunimura?" asked a Boss Chiba who was standing up.

"He got sent over here because he single-handedly took down the Italian mob down in New York. He can most certainly do that to us over here!" Said Chiba excitedly.

The entire meeting in reality was just a bunch of men complaining that their deals and agendas are falling apart. If it wasn't the supers flying around, it now had to be some gung-ho American cop that feels that the Underground boundary is no precept for him. They need a way to deal with this, and there was only one man in the room that had the ability to smooth everything out.

Deidara sat in the corner that was bathed in shadows. He was unnoticed by all but Mizuki who had given him access to the meeting. Even though Deidara was just a part of the Underground as any of the other bosses, he was an unwanted commodity due to his "nature".

"You all honestly think that this cop is of any concern, what about Kunoichi and Dire Wolf, they were there last night as well. If we are to be cautious of anyone now they're the ones we have to keep an eye on." said Kunimura silencing the others at the table.

Kunimura has a point in that. The cop could easily be told not to come back into the Underground but the supers won't. If there was anything to worry about it would have to be the regulars who come patrolling down there: Kunoichi, Dire Wolf, Shadow Devil to name a few. Also, if the predicament got more attention then they would surely get visits from the rest of the hero faithful.

"We can't afford to have our plans noticed by anyone of the supers flying around this city. If we are going to act then act now while we still are safe in she shadows." Retorted Boss Hanzo, but he was met with an indifferent snort from the back of the room.

"Safe? You all think your safe, hm?" Approaching from the shadows, everyone present finally saw who the speaker was that gave such a disrespectful remark.

"Now I wanna know something, alright? Did your balls suddenly fall off or something or am I sitting with a bunch a pansies, huh." Deidara said as he walked out of the shadows.

At this Boss Shingen stood up abruptly and yelled "And what makes you think you're welcome here?"

"Take it easy there Shingen I don't wanna get your panties in a bunch, yeah." Deidara replied sitting himself down at the other head of the table.

As all the bosses looked at the maniac sitting right across from them they all wondered who welcomed him in there. At this Mizuki had already left and was preparing his bar for the night ahead.

The bosses were looking at the despicable grungy look of their guest, none took into account of what they were talking about before. It almost seemed Deidara had taken all the attention to himself.

Deidara was decked in a torn olive-green jacket that looked as if he got it from a army supply store, and his dark velvet striped amber shirt was dirtied with stains and God knows what else.

Deidara simply looked around questioningly and wondered if the bosses were going to say anything else, but seeing as how they weren't he decided to speak.

"Now listen alright. It appears to me that you all have a little problem concerning your "plans", hm. Well it just so happens that my employer's interests are also a little hindered at what he believes to be an inopportune problem."

"Oh yeah, so where do you come in?" asked an inconspicuous gang member from the back.

"Well that's simple. I am here to fix our little problem, yeah."

This was met with a few muttered laughs as everyone felt that as crazy as Deidara was, he was no match for the entire hero force of Japan, and even the world if things get to out of hand. Also, not only that, but they have the TPD on their asses which makes things all the more difficult.

"How are we supposed to ensure all we have put our livelihoods into your fickle hands? You who couldn't put away with Iron Liger a couple of weeks ago. I would feel much better if we knew your employer and see if he has our best interests at heart." Came Boss Hanzo from the other side of the table.

Deidara was fiddling his fingers and was quite perturbed when he was met with such disrespect.

"Listen! I could give a shit about what your interests are, and even less about all of you, alright. Now the way I see it a good artist doesn't sell himself out for free, so if any of you think you can handle this on your own, be my guest, hm." With that Deidara stood up and prepared himself to walk out the door.

The bosses all looked around at each other and thought quickly if it was worth expending the manpower to deal with this problem. In all reality, no boss here was in any way a friend to each other, but they consolidated out of necessity. Truthfully if hiring this maniac to deal with a whole city was going to take eyes away from the Yakuza and Underground, then it truly seemed worth it. Not only that, but if the crazy gets himself killed then it wouldn't be a bad thing at all either. It was a win/win situation.

"Wait" exclaimed Boss Kunimura.

"What exactly is your plan then?" Kunimura asked curiously.

"Deidara turned suddenly with a smile on his face; his long bang covering the psychotic glint in his eye.

"That's simple, yeah." Deidara said as he walked back towards the table.

"This city is a canvas, and on it I'm going to create a work of art none has ever witnessed. By the end of the day people will all realize that Deidara is a mainstay, and that the New Dawn approaches, hm."

"Wait, you're going to do this tonight? Don't you think that's a little hasty?" asked Boss Shingen.

"My employer's plans have been moved up, and it will encompass the whole city." Deidara then again moved towards the door, but was interrupted yet again.

"What will you do if get any cops or heroes on your tail?" Boss Hanzo inquired

"Simple" Deidara said turning once more "I'm going to kill **everyone."**

The nonchalance he said this chilled all the Yakuza clan heads. If tonight was the surmised plan's inception then it would certainly light the whole city on fire, literally by Deidara's notion.

All the while Mizuki listened in on the conversation beyond the door, and as soon as Deidara walked out he turned to Mizuki and said, "It starts tonight, you now what to do."

Mizuki nodded and saw Deidara walk away. Even though the plan was supposed to happen this soon, he would have no problem to get the boys riled up. In Mizuki's head all he was thinking about was that Project Anarchy would be getting a head start tonight.


End file.
